


this life is but a choice

by xenorosis



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medieval, Asthmatic Steve Rogers, Domestic Fluff, Hair Braiding, M/M, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, SHIELD, Sharing a Bed, Sleepy Cuddles, Swords, The Tesseract (Marvel), Worried Loki (Marvel), kind of? idk what else to call this au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 16:47:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 21,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29439231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xenorosis/pseuds/xenorosis
Summary: Loki, the very not-lost Prince of Asgard, meets Steve Rogers, a commoner from a village called Brooklyn. This is the beginning of a search for the Tesseract including sharing beds at inns, starting fights in bars, uncovering kingdom secrets, and falling for each other along the way.
Relationships: Loki/Steve Rogers
Comments: 6
Kudos: 11
Collections: Marvel Reverse Big Bang 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here it is! The fic I wrote for the Marvel Reverse Big Bang! Prompted by the [art created by the lovely MissMistiBlurryface.](https://missmistiblurryface.tumblr.com/post/643147991206821888/this-is-the-piece-i-submitted-for-this-years) It was fun coming up with the plot for this one and collaborating with my artist. Huge thank you to my beta, Rachel, she has been amazing and her feedback was incredible. Huge thanks also to the mods for organizing and hosting the event! And for being very patient with me!

Loki is hopelessly lost. He wouldn’t admit to anyone else if asked, but he is smart enough to admit it to himself after wandering in these woods for what had to have been half the night now. With a motion similar to clenching his fist, his witchlight dissipates, leaving his path illuminated by the waxing moon. 

He sighs to himself as he stops to survey his surroundings. Loki can see no path and the one he took to enter the woods is long gone. He is deep into the untravelled area of the forest now and he has little hope of stumbling upon a path or even another traveller. His best bet is to get to higher ground where he’ll be able to see more of the area and hope that will help him orient himself. 

Typically he would have resorted to a directional spell but he tried that and ended up going in circles. For whatever reason, only the simplest of his magic seems to work in this forest. He can create light to help him see and warm himself with a palm full of fire; but try to find direction or conjure his knives? Nothing happens. Odin could have mentioned such a thing before they left on their journey, but either he didn’t care enough to tell them or he didn’t know. 

Loki is betting on the former. His father has never been one to openly show his affection (arguably a trait that he inherited) and is sorely lacking in the supportive parenting department. He is far more likely to turn them loose on the world and trust that they won’t ruin things too badly. 

Considering their history, he's typically wrong but they've managed to fix everything they've messed up thus far, so why should he care?

Ruminating on his pathetic excuse for a father does nothing to help him out of this damned forest though, so Loki sets those thoughts aside. He needs to get out of here. 

Loki picks a direction that seems to lead up and goes that way. He reaches the crest of a hill which gives him a better view of the surrounding area. Not that it helps much; all he can see are trees. 

A crashing noise from his right draws his attention. Loki’s mind races as he thinks through the possibilities—it could be an animal but it could also be a person. A person who could potentially know their way around this forest. Then again, it could be someone who is willing to attack and maybe kill him but it’s not like Loki is completely helpless; he can kill them first. 

Decision made, he makes his way to the noise, slipping his sword from his sheath as a precaution. Whatever it is, it’s making no attempt to be any quieter. 

Loki walks past the trees to find a man. A rather scrawny man, with bright hair not unlike Thor’s, albeit much shorter. He looks pathetically skinny and altogether like a man (was he a man? He was short enough to be a child) who should not be left alone in the woods. _Perfect_. 

Nonetheless, he is a local and as loathe as he is to admit it, Loki needs the help. He would be a fool to give up such an opportunity for his pride. He walks forward almost silently, sword in hand mainly to intimidate. A man this small couldn’t possibly put up much of a fight.

The man looks up; the quiet sound of the sword had attracted his attention. His eyes widen at the sight of it pointed at him and he raises his hands in a placating gesture. 

“Uh, sorry,” the man says. He gestures to the hill behind him. “I, uh, tripped? Fell the whole way down.” 

He finishes with a wry smile, as though he is amused with himself. Or maybe it was slight disbelief, like he didn’t quite know how he managed to do something so foolish. 

When Loki doesn’t reply he continues. “My name’s Steve. Steve Rogers.” 

Steve holds out his hand and Loki ignores it. Steve pulls his hand back and runs it down the back of his neck. “Right. Uh, do you really need to do that?”

He motions at the sword Loki is still aiming at his chest. Loki narrows his eyes and decides intimidating this man isn’t necessary. He slides the sword gracefully into the sheath at his hip. 

Steve nods his thanks. “So? What’s your name?”

Loki eyes him, wondering if there was any point in lying about his name to a commoner who he probably wouldn’t be with for much longer. “Loki.” 

“It’s nice to meet you then, Loki. What are you doing in the woods?”

“I could ask you the same.”

Steve huffs in agreement. “I’m on my way home. I live in a village down that way.” He gestures to somewhere behind Loki. “And you?”

Loki pauses. “I’m here on a… diplomatic visit.”

Steve raises his eyebrows and looks over Loki’s outfit; Loki knows his once immaculate outfit is now quite ruined thanks to his wandering the woods for hours. Not much to be done about that now, so he settles for standing up straighter, relishing in the way he towers over this tiny man. All it does is make Steve smile and shake his head to himself. 

“You’re dressed like nobility,” Steve comments. “You supposed to be at the palace? For that meeting they’re holding? I heard the Asgardian princes were visiting. It’s supposed to be a big deal.”

Loki lets the edges of his mouth twitch into a smile. “Is that so?”

Steve nods. “Strengthening inter-kingdom relations and all that probably. A show of goodwill.” 

“Ah,” Loki nods along. Better to let Steve believe what he wished. No need to explain why Asgard’s second prince is wandering in the dark if Steve doesn’t know he is talking to the second prince. It works out quite nicely. 

Steve frowns, eyes narrowing as his eyes drift from Loki’s face to the trees behind him, as though searching for other people. His eyes dart back to meet Loki’s. “But why are you here?”

“I was out with a hunting party,” Loki lies smoothly. “We were separated.” 

“Are you lost?” Steve asks bluntly. 

“Absolutely not.” 

“You are!” Steve crows, like it is a huge triumph to be right. 

Loki scowls. “I. Am. Not. Lost.”

“Sure,” Steve says, still smirking. “I’ll just be on my way then. It was nice to meet you sir!”

 _Why that little_ — Steve is already turning and walking away, leaving Loki to stare after him. _Damn him!_ Either Loki stays here with his dignity or throws it all away so this man will help him and he can finally be out of this cursed forest. 

Loki swallows painfully and calls out. “Wait!” 

Steve pauses without turning around. His head tilts ever so slightly as he listens. 

Loki grits his teeth. “I may… require your assistance.” 

Steve turns to grin at him. “Why didn’t you just ask?”

▷━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◁

They decide leaving the forest to return Loki to the palace means hiking overnight and according to Steve, being in the woods at night is never a good idea. Loki thought that was stupid but he was tired of being lost so he agreed to going with Steve to his village. 

Steve lives in a small village called Brooklyn not far from the edge of the woods. It is the kind of place that Loki will tolerate and Thor will decide is quaint and absolutely deserving of his protection (his go to for showing affection). The roads are paved with stones and the streets are composed of rows of wooden buildings. The houses are simple but clearly sturdy, with tall tree trunk pillars and large open windows for light. 

Loki can admit the architecture is rather nice but he isn’t going to. 

The people are dressed similarly to Steve, in sensible tunics or shirts and straight pants, all made for practicality. There are few people with the same fair blond hair as Steve; a large majority are dark haired and dark-eyed. Loki guesses Steve’s pale skin is a result of him spending most of his time inside; being as small and sickly as he looked he surely didn’t go outside that much. That or it’s inherited. 

Loki follows Steve down the streets. Some people wave as they pass, greeting Steve with happy smiles and eyeing Loki warily. A tight knit community is rarely welcoming to outsiders. Loki will stay on his guard. 

They stop at what must be Steve’s house. It is small but no less sturdy than the buildings around it. A small patch of dirt next the front path has been turned over, a pile of weeds stacked next to it. Steve catches him looking. 

“I’m trying to start a garden for my ma,” he explains. “It’s slow going but she’d love the flowers.” 

Loki nods. That he understands. Walking the palace gardens with his own mother was admittedly one of his favourite ways to pass the time. 

As they enter the house, Steve lets out a shout telling his mother he is home. A woman’s voice responds. It is very faint and sounds dull somehow, like it is hard for her to get the words out. Then they hear coughing and Steve immediately goes rushing to a room at the back of the house. 

Lying in a bed is Steve’s mother. Her hair is lighter than her son’s and her skin is sickly pale. Her sunken eyes are emphasized by dark shadows beneath them. Her breathing is slow and shaky. 

Steve sits at her bedside, filling a glass with water from the pitcher on the nightstand. He leans over the bed and carefully raises the glass to her lips, urging her to drink. She only manages a few sips before she’s gently pushing his arm away. Steve sighs, setting the glass on the table. He takes his mother’s hand in his and runs a thumb across her knuckles. He watches her and she smiles at him. It makes her face look younger, less sick. 

“Hey ma,” Steve says. His voice is soft and tender and Loki feels very out of place witnessing their interaction. “Brought home a friend.”

 _A friend, hm?_ What a foolish thing to say about someone he’s just met in the woods of all places. 

Steve’s mother turns her head to look at Loki. Steve waves him over to the bed, making a face that says he thinks it’s strange Loki’s still standing by the door. With a sigh to himself, Loki approaches. Somehow being in the presence of this woman is making him feel the same way he would around his own mother. Is this some kind of talent all mothers possess? To make others feel simultaneously cared for and as though they should behave?

“Hello.” Loki begins, cursing himself for how stilted his speech sounds. He clears his throat and purposefully discards of the reserved manner he unwillingly adopted upon entering the room. 

The woman in the bed looks at him for a long moment, her eyes lingering on his pale skin and dark hair, then narrowing slightly when they see the finery still visible under all the dirt. 

“Stevie, darling, why don’t you show your friend where he can wash up? Some of your dad’s old clothes should be with the extra blankets. Go and grab them.” 

Steve nods, already halfway out the door. Then it’s just Loki and Steve’s mother sitting silent in the room. Loki does not know what to say so he says nothing. 

“You’re the troubled sort, aren’t you?”

Loki’s eyes glance up from the floor to stare at her. His tongue darts out to wet his lips before he speaks. “What do you mean?”

She nods her head as though that was answer enough. “I’ve worked with soldiers. I was a nurse in the last war and many of the men I treated had the same tired look you do.”

Loki just barely turns his head away to stare at the metal bars that make up the headboard of her bed so he doesn’t have to look her in the eye. 

“Tired men are usually hiding. Keeping up a mask to keep out the world. I only mention it because it’s not going to last.”

Loki only raises an eyebrow in question this time. 

“My Steve has a way of getting to the heart of people. If you stick around him that mask is going to disappear real soon.”

Loki doesn’t get a chance to reply because Steve is walking back through the door, arms weighed down by an old pair of clothes. He gives them to Loki then points back out to the hallway. “Go straight down the hall to the room at the end. I’ve filled a basin with water and there’s a cloth you can use to wash up.”

Loki merely nods his head in thanks and leaves the room without another word. Mrs. Rogers’ words echo in his head, guaranteed to remain there until he figures them out. Not like she’ll be right. He doesn’t plan on sticking around. 

Loki takes his time washing the dirt off his skin, content to let Steve and his mother spend time together so he doesn’t have to endure any unnecessary awkward conversation. The water is pleasantly warm. A tiny part of him is touched by the fact that Steve took the time to heat it but he doesn’t dwell on it. 

Dwelling on it might make him want to stick around just because he’s met some decent people but he really does have to leave soon. 

When he’s wasted as much time as he can, he leaves his dirty clothes in a pocket dimension (he’ll get them washed later, Mother will never know) and sets out to find Steve. He’s not hard to find, Loki just has to follow the sound of harsh whispering. 

He enters what looks to be the main room of the little house. There’s a wooden table set near the wall so there’s enough space to walk. The window over the table lets light into the room. Steve is standing on the other side of the table, back to Loki, arguing with a dark haired man who seems to be hell bent on keeping Steve out of the kitchen behind him. A woman sits at the table, chin resting on the palm of her hand as she reads a book. She seems to have no issue with the argument happening just a few feet away; this must be a daily occurrence. 

The dark haired man stops his whisper yelling when he notices Loki standing in the doorway. “Who’re you?”

Now everyone is staring at him. Loki takes it in stride, entering the room and sitting in the chair opposite the woman. “Steve didn’t mention me?”

The woman takes note of her page before closing her book. She tilts her head up, folding her hands under her chin. “Well, Steve?”

Steve is now standing behind Loki, one hand resting on the back of Loki’s chair. The other is rubbing at the back of his neck in what Loki is quickly recognizing as a nervous gesture. 

“Right, sorry, I forgot. Maybe because _some_ people—” he shoots a pointed glare at the dark haired man “—think I can’t make dinner on my own.” 

“Hey, the last time you tried to cook on your own you nearly burned the whole damn house down—”

“That was one time, Bucky! Just once!”

“Boys!” The woman effectively shuts them up. Clearly they respect her. Loki’s interest piques. 

“Steve,” she turns to him with a saccharine smile. “Why is this man in your house?”

“This is Loki. I met him in the woods on the way home, he was lost.”

“I was not lost!” 

Loki’s protest goes unheard when Bucky interrupts. “Steve, you punk, you can’t go adopting strays from the forest.” 

“Don’t talk about him like he isn’t sitting right there, Buck. Didn’t your ma teach you any manners?”

“She absolutely did, which is why I’m making dinner.” Bucky grins as he shoves Steve into the last chair between Loki and the woman. Steve moves to stand and continue their argument but the woman places a hand on his arm. 

“Steve, for god’s sake, just let the man cook.” 

Steve sits down but the look on his face tells Loki he and Bucky will be having the same argument another day. Loki would know, it was the same face Thor made when mother made them shut up about whatever they were fighting over. 

The woman turns her attention to Loki. Loki doesn’t miss the way her eyes look him over, taking in the neatly braided hair and the rings he still wears on his fingers. 

“Loki,” she hums. “An interesting name. Not local, I believe.”

“You would be correct,” Loki says. “I don’t think I got your name…?”

“Peggy,” she replies, extending a hand across the table for him to shake. “Just Peggy is fine.”

“Very well, Peggy.”

“Where are you from, then?”

“Forgive my assumptions, but you seem like the kind of woman would take a guess and be right.”

Peggy smiles, amused. “Alright, I’ll take a guess. You’ve got long hair and green eyes, neither of which are common in this kingdom. Long hair typically means royalty. And seeing as the Asgardians arrived for a visit recently, I’d say you’re from the kingdom of Asgard.”

“Very good,” Loki smirks. “I am indeed from Asgard.”

“He’s not royalty, though.” Steve speaks up. “Just nobility. That’s what he told me.”

“ _Just nobility_ , really Steve?” Bucky calls from behind them. “And you said I had no manners, unbelievable.”

“Stop eavesdropping before _you_ burn the house down!” Steve whisper-yells back. 

“Your attempts to not wake your mother are ridiculous and somehow actually working.” Peggy shakes her head as though she can’t quite believe it. 

“It’s a well practiced art,” Steve shrugs. Loki can tell; the ease at which these three spend time together suggests they do it often. They’ve known each other for quite some time. He is, once again, the outsider. 

Peggy turns back to him. “So, what’s nobility doing in our humble little town?”

“It’s a rather nice town,” Loki deflects. “Very quaint.”

Peggy says nothing, merely raising an eyebrow. She picked on the deflection but is choosing not to comment, Loki notices. 

“So, you’re staying the night?” Steve asks. It catches Loki off guard. 

“Excuse me?”

“You’re staying here. I brought you home because it was getting dark and you’ve got nowhere else to go, so you’ll stay, right?”

Loki blinks. “I… I suppose so.” 

“Great! I’ll set up a room for you.” 

Loki watches him leave the room. He can’t quite wrap his head around how easily Steve just _does_ things for him. Sure, in Asgard they had palace staff who did what he needed and rarely had to be asked. But someone doing things for him without being asked? Just for the sake of being kind?

That was new. The only other person to do that was his mother. 

Loki must have spaced out for too long because Bucky is nudging him with an elbow as he sets down plates filled with rice and some kind of cooked meat.

“He’s like that with everyone,” Bucky says, returning to the kitchen to grab forks and knives. “Just too damn nice. You’ll get used to it.” 

Loki just nods, determined not to lose focus again. So Steve was strangely kind to someone he just met in the woods, what of it? It didn’t matter. Right now he should see what he can learn from Bucky and Peggy. No sense is wasting time to potentially collect information. 

What to ask? Peggy already seems to find him suspicious, at least in that he was not who he said he was. Smart woman. Bucky didn’t seem to care much who he was as long as nothing happened to Steve. Loki needs to find the tesseract but asking them about it probably won’t help him; it’s been lost for years, there’s no reason for them to know it even exists. 

Better to ask about the forest. He still doesn’t know why his magic didn’t work but they live here. They must be more familiar with the kingdom’s policies on magic, even if it looks like there aren’t many magic users in Steve’s village. 

“So,” Loki begins. “What is it like, living here? I imagine it’s quite different than where I’m from.”

Bucky snorts. “Sure. You’ve got all you could ever ask for. No need to worry about making sure you have enough money for food or if your shoes will last you another year.” 

His tone goes from amused to bitter in a matter of seconds. Loki needs to change the direction of the conversation, away from the classes that divide them and towards the information he needs. 

“I was thinking more about the cultural differences.” Loki says, smoothly bypassing the potential deterioration of this conversation and hoping Bucky would take the bait. 

Peggy speaks before Bucky can, seemingly also eager to avoid conflict at the breakfast table while Steve’s mother was sleeping in the next room. “Well, the clothes for one. Clearly you dress differently and it isn’t just because of the class difference.” 

Loki nods, humming absentmindedly as he smooths a hand down the front of his borrowed tunic. “Your fabrics are different. But of course, my status as a magic user grants me access to fabrics designed for magic use.”

This time Bucky does take the bait. “Magic user, hm? We don’t have a lot of those around here.”

Peggy narrows her eyes, pausing in her eating to stare at him. Loki ignores her, choosing to reply to Bucky. 

“Back in Asgard, they’re quite common. Less favoured than our warriors, but common nonetheless.” 

“Wouldn’t using magic to fight make you a warrior? Just of a different kind, surely.” Peggy asks. 

Loki turns to her to find that her stare has yet to falter. Once again he is impressed by her tenacity. 

“You’d think so,” Loki agrees. “But alas, magic is seen as a woman’s art. It’s admirable to face your opponent head on like a fool and somehow shameful to use your wits and magic to outsmart them.”

Peggy freezes when he says “woman’s art.” _Interesting_. Evidently, the status of women here in Brooklyn is a sore spot. Considered less able than men, most likely. It’s a shame really, how often people ignore the talents of strong-willed women like Peggy. 

Peggy recovers quickly, though her posture is still stiff, still angry. “Well, most people don’t appreciate what women can do.”

Ah, here it is. Time to get on her good side. “Quite right. They’re impressive and fully capable in their own right.”

Peggy looks at him in surprise but she seems pleased. Bucky goes on eating, their interaction lost to him. 

“Is magic considered a women’s art here too?” Loki continues, his face the picture of innocent curiosity.

“Nah,” Bucky replies. “They banned magic here a long time ago. The King isn’t a fan.”

“I see.” 

That may very well explain the troubles he had in the forest. If their king isn’t fond of magic it would make sense he had wards of some kind set in place throughout the forest, keeping magic use impossible where he did not want it. Probably successfully defended against any invasion from armies that relied on magic too. 

Loki remembers meeting King Tony in the Miguardian Palace the day he arrived with Thor. He was arrogant and Loki felt they would have been friends in other circumstances. As it was, Tony made fast friends with Thor and Loki had long ago decided anyone friends with Thor wasn’t worth much of his time. He had also emphasized the use of what he called “science” in his kingdom. His palace was filled with inventions designed to make everyday tasks easy: lamps that didn’t need fire, large doors that opened on their own when approached, and some kind of palace wide monitoring system in addition to his guards.

Loki was rather sceptical of his “science” and especially so because he was completely denouncing magic for it. It does make his job that much more difficult; he needs to know how far these anti-magic wards reach. 

“Any particular reason he doesn’t like magic?” Loki asks, picking at what’s left of his egg with his fork. 

“Shouldn’t you know, being a noble and all? You’re one of the Asgardians that showed up at the palace a few days ago so you’ve probably met the king already.”

Loki scoffs, waving a hand as though to brush aside his assumption. “Like your king cares about a mere nobleman. He spoke mostly to the princes.” 

“So you’re just asking for what, gossip?” 

Loki lifts one shoulder in a shrug. “Always interesting to hear what people think of the royals.” 

Peggy laughs at that. “I’m sure people have plenty to say about our king. He’s quite… dramatic.”

“Understatement. He’s a showoff.” Bucky adds, shoving the last of his food into his mouth. 

“He doesn’t trust magic, is the story most people believe,” Peggy adds. “No one really knows why but I would guess he’s had some bad experiences with magic before. Magic users were never really prevalent here in our kingdom, not like they are in others. The king’s adamant refusal to cultivate it just adds to the divide.” 

Loki nods, staying silent in hopes that she will offer more information. People tend to speak so long as they’re given the chance. 

“Magic is banned, technically.” Bucky says, leaning back in his chair. “People still use it, just for household things. But they’ve got wards set up in the forest, isn’t that right Peggy?”

Peggy nods. “Covers the entirety of the woods. They border almost half the kingdom so it’s a good defense against invasion.” 

Loki keeps his face free of anything but polite interest, a look mastered after years of banquets with dull nobility. Before he can make more inquiries, Steve is returning from his mother’s room. 

“Just checking on her,” is his reply to Bucky’s questioning look. “She’s okay.” 

Steve turns to Loki, sitting in Bucky’s chair when he gets up to collect their empty plates. “I got your room set up. We don’t really have any empty rooms so you’ll have to sleep in mine. Hope that’s alright.” 

“It’ll work,” Loki says, giving him a smile. “Thank you for your hospitality.”

Steve brightens at his words and thanks Bucky who’s come back with a plate of food for him. People are so easy to please, Loki thinks. Happy with the fewest of grateful words. 

“Well, we’re going to head home.” Bucky says. 

Peggy stands at his words, picking up a coat hanging on the back of her chair. “It is getting late. Wish your mother well from us, Steve.” 

Steve nods, mouth full of food. Bucky ruffles his hair, at which Steve swipes an angry hand at him, missing. Bucky merely laughs. “Night, punk. Don’t get into any trouble.”

And then it’s just Loki and Steve. Steve doesn’t take long to eat and they wash the dishes in relative silence. It’s peaceful somehow, to be doing something so mundane, the repetitive action of drying the plates Steve gives him soothing after the hectic day. 

Steve’s room isn’t very large but they make do. Steve sleeps on a small cot shoved into the back corner and he’s laid out some blankets on the floor for Loki. Loki does not complain; it will not be comfortable but he will bear it, if only to maintain the favour he has gained with Steve thus far. Allies are few and far between and though Steve is more useful pawn than ally, it would be stupid to throw away the progress made tonight over something as silly as sleeping arrangements. 

He lays there in the dark after Steve blows out the candle, eyes straining to see in the low light. There is no window in this room and there is only the light from the hallway window for him to see by. Then Steve speaks. 

“Will you be staying long?”

Loki pauses to think before speaking. He wants to leave as soon as possible, needs to find the Tesseract but should he say he will be leaving? Would it be better to mention the possibility of staying a few more days, if only to ensure that if he needs to he will have a place to stay?

“Just a few days,” Loki replies. “I won’t bother you longer than that.” 

“You’re not a bother. Ma won’t mind having company other than me.” 

“Can I ask you something?”

“Shoot.” 

“You and your mother, you look different. From the rest of the village I mean. They all have dark hair and eyes to match, but you’re the opposite.” 

“Yeah,” Steve agrees. “Everyone says I look like my ma. I guess they’re right because I don’t know what my dad looked like. He died in the war before I was ever born.” 

“I’m sorry.” 

“I didn’t know him. My ma, she’s not from around here. Came here to help when the war was in full swing. She was a nurse. She says she decided to stay when the war ended because she liked it here so much. Other people, though, they say she stayed for me.” 

“How so?”

“I was little when the war ended, just a few years old. And I’m not the healthiest person right now, and when I was little it was a lot worse. I think she stayed because she didn’t think I could survive the trip back to her home.” 

Loki is silent as he takes in the story. Steve lets him think as he collects his own thoughts before speaking again. “I feel guilty sometimes. But then I remember how happy she is, at least before she got sick. We used to go on walks everyday, as far as our legs could handle. Pick wildflowers in meadows we found.”

Loki is struck by the thought of spending time in his mother’s gardens. His heart gives a tight squeeze. “Sounds lovely.”

“Yeah,” Steve sighs. “Now all I can do is draw her the flowers whenever I save enough money to buy paper.” 

Loki turns to the corner where Steve’s cot sits. He can just barely make out the outline of Steve lying on it, face turned to the ceiling. “I’m sure she appreciates it.” 

Steve is quiet for a long time. Loki is almost asleep when he hears the whisper of “Thanks, Loki.”

▷━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◁

Pepper runs a hand through her hair, trying in vain to keep the strands from falling out of what once was an elegant updo. The sky was dark outside her window, the stars her only companion as she sat in her study working into the dawn hours. Tony should have been in bed by this point and she there with him but she was stuck looking for their missing royal and he never went to bed on time unless prompted. 

Pepper leans back in her chair, tilting her head to look at the molding curling across the ceiling. Asgard’s princes had been in the Kingdom of York for only three days and they had already lost one. She just barely managed to convince Prince Thor to give them three days to search before he went looking on his own. She needs to find Prince Loki before word gets back to Asgard’s king; they were trying to avoid another war, not start one. 

Pepper had spent the day calming the visiting party and working with the palace guards to orchestrate search parties. Four out of the total eight had returned, bringing word that there was no sign of Loki in any of the nearby villages, towns, or shoreline that bordered the west side of their kingdom. The search parties sent out to the woods in the east and beyond had yet to return. 

Pepper stands, sighing as she stretches. She straightens the reports on her desk, leaving them in a neat pile before grabbing her slippers from beneath the desk and sliding her feet into them. Even with Tony’s new heating system the palace was drafty at night. She should ask him about window coverings of some kind; they’d probably help with keeping the palace warm. 

She walks down the nearly empty hallway. The only guards she passes are the ones that guard entryways. The rest have been drafted for the search effort. She really hopes they find him. The diplomatic work that will come should their neighbouring kingdom learn of the prince’s disappearance is something she desperately does not want to deal with. 

She didn’t imagine this for herself when she was young. Sure, Pepper had wanted to go up in the world; anything would have been better than staying in the small town she had been born in. But Queen of York? No one could reasonably say that was something they had pictured for themselves, unless they were nobility.  
  
Tony was the kind of person that swept people into his whirlwind of a life and if he really liked them, they were caught for a long time. They met by accident, Tony mistaking her for nobility because she had been the maid accompanying a Lady at the time and the next thing she knew, she was working for him and then with him. Not too bad, her mother always said with a definitive nod, not too bad. 

Pepper has to wonder though, if it was worth all the headache that came with diplomacy and wrangling her impulsive husband. 

It is, she decides when she finds Tony once again slumped over in his workshop, asleep on the table. She shakes him awake and helps him to their room, bidding the guard outside their door a goodnight. 

Despite the stress, she wouldn’t trade this life for the world. 

▷━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◁

Loki spends the next few days wandering town, sometimes with Steve, sometimes without. At first he only explores exclusively with Steve by his side because it ensures the people of the village will warm up to him that much faster. It works, and soon people are greeting him as though he’s lived there his entire life. None of them question where he’s from; they trust Steve’s judgement and so they have no reason to ask. 

It’s all very convenient because Loki can ask questions to gather information and play it off as him being foreign to the ways of this kingdom. The information is useful in helping him develop the next steps of his plan. The search for the tesseract is proving to be difficult; more knowledge on the kingdom itself may reveal a clue as to its whereabouts. He just needs to be careful around Peggy because she’s the only one smart enough to question why a nobleman would be so curious. 

He collects information quickly. Much of it is irrelevant because the people here are ridiculously trusting and very eager to share all manner of anecdotal stories. What little that is useful is particularly enlightening. Loki learns that magic is frowned upon by the king but in smaller villages like Brooklyn the ban is generally ignored. There are several people in the village who use magic in their everyday tasks. From them he learns they’ve chosen to live in this relatively remote area for discretion and that the forest is heavily warded with a combination of old magics (the only use of magic exempt from the ban) and some of the King’s newer technology. He also learns it’s impossible to bypass unless one is expressly cleared by the king. 

Which means any further travel in the forest should be done during the day and preferably with a guide. Loki sighs as he thinks this over, sitting at the counter in the only bar in town. It’s a small place, one fairly large room with four tables and various chairs scattered around the room. Lit by candlelight, the patrons chat quietly over their drinks. It’s early evening and there are not yet many people here. Loki came before the late rush on purpose; he needs the quiet to think. 

When he set out on this mission he intended on doing it alone. Odin had tasked him with it and he was told not to mention it to even Thor. Now it was looking like he would need the help of a local; trying to navigate this foreign kingdom on his own was guaranteed to make everything more difficult. The only question was, who to ask for help? 

Steve answers that question by walking in. In the short time Loki has known him, he has proven to be relatively reliable and at the very least not the worst person to spend time with. Loki could go so far as to say spending time with Steve has become _enjoyable_. He’s engaging to talk to and has a wit Thor’s friends sorely lacked. 

Loki does not turn as Steve slides into the stool next to him at the counter. He merely sips in drink, contemplating the best way to ask for Steve’s company without tipping him off to the true nature of his mission. 

“What are you up to?” Steves asks, rather bluntly. 

“What have I done to suggest I’m up to anything?” Loki asks innocently. 

Steve holds up a hand to count off points on his fingers. “Talking to the townspeople, asking about the magic wards, asking about the king’s history with magic.”

“Could it not be that I am just familiarizing myself with this new place?”

“That’s a shit explanation. You’re a noble, why ‘familiarize’ yourself if you’re just going to leave? Why haven’t you left already?”

Loki feels himself stiffen at Steve’s accusing tone and forces himself to relax. “It is about time I leave, isn’t it?” 

His tone suggests he is unaffected by the simple phrase but his brain is already yelling at him. Stupid of him really, to stay this long, to interpret Steve’s kind actions of proof he actually cared. 

Steve leans closer to force Loki to look at him. “I didn’t say that.” 

That takes Loki by surprise. He… didn’t want him to leave? All he can manage to say is a rather unintelligent “Oh.” 

Steve’s lips curl into an amused smile. “I just don’t get what you’re doing.”

Loki is silent while he thinks of what to say. Steve flags down the bartender while he waits for a response. 

“Should you really be having a drink, _Steven_?” Loki teases, buying some time. 

“Shut up. It won’t kill me.” 

“But Bucky might.” 

“Like you’ll tell him.”

Loki’s silence makes him turn on the stool so he sits facing Loki. “You wouldn’t.”

“I make no promises.” Loki can’t stop the way his lips curve into a small smile. 

Steve just nudge’s Loki shoulder with his own, scoffing as he thanks the bartender with a nod for his drink. “You better not.”

“What would you say,” Loki begins, “to coming with me.”

“With you?” 

“You’re right, I won’t be staying long. It would be nice to have company.” 

Steve raises an eyebrow. “Why would you need company back to the palace?”

“I’m not going back to the palace.” 

Steve’s eyes widen in surprise and he sets his drink down slowly. “Then where are you going?”

Loki sighs, making a show of thinking through his words while running a finger around the rim of his glass. If he plays his cards right, this should go the way he wants. “There’s a reason I was in the woods.”

“You didn’t get separated during a hunt.”

“No.”

Steve’s voice is steely when he speaks. “So you lied. Why?” 

“The real reason I’m here is meant to be secret.” 

Steve’s eyes narrow and he leans away from Loki. “This isn’t something treasonous, is it? Because if it is, I don’t want to be involved.”

Loki laughs. “Of course not! I wouldn’t dream of getting you in trouble. No, I was merely sent to retrieve an artifact lost here in your kingdom before the war.”

“Why not retrieve it through diplomatic means? Ask our king for help?”

“According to the orders I was given, they tried that and it didn’t work. Hence sending me to try a more stealthy method.” 

Steve doesn’t look convinced so Loki raises his hands in the universal gesture of innocence. “I swear on your mother I mean no harm to anyone here. I am simply trying to find an artifact important to our people.”

“How important?” 

Ah, there it is. Steve’s compassion has him interested. 

“It’s been passed down in the royal family for centuries. It’s value is mostly sentimental, but it is important to us.” 

“Yeah, I get that.” 

“Really?” Loki asks, all innocent curiosity. It was a tactic that worked well when he was young, getting the castle guards to open up. 

Steve pulls a slim silver object that is circular in shape and sits neatly in his palm. He flips it open to reveal a compass in the lower half and a small photo of Peggy in the top. Loki raises an eyebrow at the photo. 

Steve blushes. “She gave it to me… we had a thing. Briefly.”

“A ‘thing’, hmm?” Loki took great delight in the way the red spread down Steve’s cheeks to his neck. 

“Not important, it didn’t last.”

Loki watches Steve’s eyes linger on the photo. “You still care for her.” 

“Of course. I always will. That’s why it’s got value to me.”

Loki nods, sipping his drink. “Will you come?”

Steve pockets the compass, considering. Loki expects to have to convince him further but that train of thought is brought to an abrupt halt when Steve answers him with a simple “Yes.” 

“Yes?” 

“Yes,” Steve nods. “I’ll come with you.” 

Loki blinks. “Just like that? After learning I lied to you?”

Steve smiles, pushing his now empty glass away from him. “Sure, you lied. But you admitted it. I’d like to think that means you know you can trust me. And like I said, I understand sentiment. If it’s that important to you and your kingdom, I’d like to help you get that artifact back.”

After a short pause to think Steve’s words over, Loki decides not to over complicate matters. Why question something that works in his favour? Steve has proven to be stupidly kind so far and if it benefits him, Loki will accept it. Steve doesn’t seem the type to resort to trickery, or at the very least not used to lying, so surely if he does make an attempt later Loki will easily catch him and deal with it. 

“We leave tomorrow.”

“Alright,” Steve says, sliding off the stool until his feet touch the ground. He points over his shoulder at the door. “I’ll pack some things, let my mother know I’m leaving.” 

“Will she be okay while you’re gone?”

“Sure,” Steve nods. “Emily from down the street helps take care of her because I can’t do it all myself and she’s been friends with Ma a long time. I’ll let her know. See you back at the house?”

Loki nods and watches Steve leave, head quickly disappearing amidst the taller people now entering the bar. The evening rush had arrived and with it Loki’s cue to exit. His quiet thinking time here was over for today. 

He slips out after Steve, walking down the street in the opposite direction. He wanders for a bit, stopping at some of the markets that are still open to buy some essentials. He can’t take everything from Steve and they’ll be travelling through the forest, which means no access to his pocket dimension storage (quite possibly one of the most inconvenient things about this whole ordeal. No, he will not think about how much he relies on magic, he’s fine thank you very much.)

A few hours later and he has a new bag, large enough to hold a few medical supplies, dried or cured food that will last, and a small lamp and some matches to light it. He buys two pairs of clothes, simple tunics that cinch at the waist should he need them to and pants that are loose in the leg. Comfortable, if not as stylish as he would like. Thor calls him vain but it’s simply that he wishes to look put together at all times. Can’t have people getting the wrong impression. Of course, on a stealth mission such as this, blending in is the objective and local clothing is the way to do it. 

He heads back to Steve’s house when the sun starts to set. Steve is in the kitchen, stirring a pot hanging in a fire pit, smoke funneling out an open space in the roof above it. 

“Hey!” Steve greets him when he notices Loki entering the room. “You’re back.”

Loki hums in agreement as he sets his things down at the table. “Brought some things for tomorrow.”

Steve’s eyes look over his purchases as he walks out of the kitchen. “Looks pretty good. I managed to pack some things too.” 

He gestures to the bag resting against the wall behind him. It isn’t very large but Loki supposes that’s for the best; it has to be light enough for Steve to carry, after all. 

They sit and eat, mostly in silence because neither of them have much to say. They’re joined by the woman Steve mentioned, Emily, who comes out of his mother’s room to tell Steve she’s sleeping. Steve thanks her for agreeing to watch his mother and Emily reminds him she’ll be back before they leave tomorrow morning. 

Then it’s just the two of them again, washing up after dinner and settling down in Steve’s room. They turn out the candle with the intention of going to sleep because they really did need to wake early the next day but Loki couldn’t do it. His brain would not stop thinking. 

He thought of his mother at first. How she was back in Asgard, unaware that Loki had been assigned a mission. If Loki had to guess, news of his disappearance had probably reached Asgard. He wonders if Odin will tell her the truth or if at this very moment she lies awake like he does, staring into the dark and wondering where her son is. 

Oh, he does miss her. 

Thor is probably beside himself right now, tearing apart the kingdom in his search. He was never good at subtlety and he didn’t have many limits when his family was on the line. It would be touching if it wasn’t so wholly unnecessary. 

Loki’s thoughts are interrupted by Steve’s quiet whisper. “Loki?”

Loki answers him with a hum.

“You’re still awake, then. I can’t sleep.” 

Loki turns his head towards Steve’s cot to see just the outline of his body lying on his side, facing Loki. “You should. You’ll be tired tomorrow.” 

“You aren’t sleeping either!”

Loki can’t argue with that.

“Do you think I should’ve told someone? That I’m leaving?”

“Who would you tell?”

“Bucky. And Peggy.” 

“Would they let you go?”

Steve hesitates before answering. “Probably not. Bucky definitely wouldn’t, not without him coming too. Peggy might, just because she knows I’m not completely helpless.”

“But Bucky worries.”

“Yeah,” Steve sighs. “I love him, he’s my best friend, but he’s also overprotective. It gets tiring sometimes.” 

“Well, there isn’t much of a choice then. If you told him, he’d never let you leave.”

“Yeah. I know. Doesn’t make me feel any less guilty, though.”

“That’s fair.” Loki thinks for a moment. “You know, my family doesn’t know I’m here.” 

“Really?”

Loki nods into the darkness. “Secret mission means no one can know.”

“So, they just think you’re missing right now? That’s rough.” 

Loki shrugs. “I’ll go home eventually.” 

“Do you miss home?”

Loki thinks about his mother’s gardens, the palace library, and the desk in his room with his magic books and his materials for spells. 

“Yes.” 

Steve props himself up with one arm so he can see Loki better. “Hopefully we’ll find this thing fast and you can go home soon.” 

Loki can’t see Steve’s face but he’s willing to bet gold on him smiling right now. It makes something twist in his chest for lying to him but he smothers that as fast as he can. Instead of dwelling on the uncomfortable ache, he rolls away so his back is to Steve. 

“That would be nice.” A simple answer. Just enough to satisfy. 

“Good night, Loki.” Steve calls from his cot. 

Loki waits until Steve is quiet and his breathing more even. He only answers when he is relatively sure Steve is asleep.

“Sleep well, Steve.” 

▷━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◁

They’re on their way after a quick breakfast of cut fruit. The sun is just beginning to rise, turning the sky above them pale pink and orange. It’s good weather to be travelling; they’ll cover lots of distance today. 

They’re well into the woods, hiking through the trees, having left the path behind them a little while back, when Steve asks, “Where exactly are we headed?”

“A town not too far from here,” Loki answers. “It’s larger than the village you grew up in and there are more people, which means I can gather more information about where the artifact might be.” 

Steve hums in acknowledgment. “How far?” 

“Just over a day's walk, if we keep a steady pace.” Loki pauses, glancing to Steve. “Perhaps longer, if we take breaks.” 

Steve quickly shifts into a more defensive stance, bristling at Loki’s words. “You don’t need to try and make things easier for me. I’m fine.” 

Loki held up placating hands, rolling his eyes at Steve’s intense reaction. “Of course not, you’re of perfect health.”

“I’m fine! Just because I’m shorter or skinnier than most other guys doesn’t mean I can’t take it the same way they can. It definitely doesn’t mean I’m too weak to handle a _walk_ through the woods.” 

“Steven,” Loki says, voice even and reasonable. “Surely you cannot deny that you are physically unable to complete tasks the same way someone more able bodied can.”

Seeing Steve about to retort, Loki golds up a hand to stop him. “Ah, ah, ah. I’m not saying you aren’t capable. I’m just saying there’s no harm, no shame, in admitting you have to do things differently to complete the same tasks. It’s fine. I understand. I use magic to fight instead of brute strength but that doesn’t make me weaker than my comrades, does it?”

Steve doesn’t say anything but does agree with a short nod. 

“There you go. I believe you can make this journey but not taking breaks when you need to will only hurt you. Just tell me if you’re tired, okay?”

“Fine.”

Loki smiles at his reluctant agreement and nudges Steve’s shoulder. “Would you like to play a game?”

Steve narrows his eyes but his lips curl into a smile. “What kind of game?”

Loki points to the green insects flying around their heads, translucent wings catching and distorting the light filtering through the trees. “First one to catch one unharmed wins.” 

They make quick progress through the woods, chasing after the insects and trying to be quiet and graceful enough to close their hands around one. In the end it is Steve that wins, trailing an insect until it settles on the trunk of a tree and successfully sliding it into his cupped hands. Loki admits defeat and they stop to wash up in a small stream and eat some of their provisions. Loki watches while Steve tears his dried meat into small pieces to eat and is suitably awed when Steve points out some deer that stop to drink from the stream near them. 

Overall, it’s quite peaceful and possibly the calmest moment Loki has had in awhile. Life in Asgard was always busy; diplomatic business with other kingdoms or visiting nobility (there was _always_ someone visiting) or some celebration. This pause is nice. 

They travel on, making their way to the next town just before nightfall. Steve points out an inn and suggests they stop there for the night. Loki is wary; spending time in a foreign place where he doesn’t know anyone always makes him uneasy; so many variables he can’t control. Nonetheless, it’s preferable to sleeping in the woods, so book a room they do. 

Before going to sleep, they decide to stay in the first floor pub for food and drinks. It’s a larger establishment than the one back in Brooklyn and it’s filled with people. Steve leaves Loki to get them some food while he finds a table for them.

Loki is standing at the wooden counter, waiting for their meals when the crowd behind him roars. There’s yelling and glasses shattering. He turns to see Steve being lifted by a burly man with a furious expression who has a solid grip on Steve’s collar. Steve is kicking fruitlessly at his chest and beating at the man’s arms. Loki abandons the counter and with a wave of his hand, a chair from a nearby table rises into the air and comes down on the brute’s head with a sharp crack. He goes down with a groan, clutching his head. Loki walks across the room and tugs Steve up from the floor by the arm, aiming to leave without further casualties. 

Unfortunately, the Norns are not so kind and the only exit is blocked by three of the brute’s friends. One is tall and lean and the other has a scar running down the length of one cheek. The third has her hair pulled back from her face, spiked rings glinting on her fingers. None of them look happy about what happened to their friend. The other patrons in the pub have either chosen to watch, happy to have free entertainment, or ignore them, choosing instead to focus on their drinks. Loki feels sorry for anyone who planned a quiet evening out, for it was surely ruined now. 

He lets go of Steve’s arm, settling into a fighting stance, one that allows for flexibility and adaptability to whatever kind of fight these idiots will present. Steve raises his arms, curling his hands into frankly dismal fists. Loki makes a mental note to teach Steve how to actually fight at some point because if he’s going to start fights on a regular basis he might as well know how to throw a proper punch. 

Tall and Lean comes forward first, throwing a punch at Loki’s stomach, which Loki blocks with an arm. He sweeps his leg out and Tall and Lean falls to the floor, reaching out to grab Loki’s ankle. Loki sidesteps his laughable attempt and crushes the man’s fingers under his heel. The man lets out a screech and pulls his hand back to cradle it to his chest. Loki leaves him on the floor and turns to face the woman who is making an attempt to ambush him while he’s distracted. Distantly, he registers Steve’s punch making contact with the scarred man’s cheek. At least Steve isn’t dead yet. Small victories. 

The woman’s rings slice across his forearm when he raises an arm to block her attack and Loki is reminded of the lack of protection that civilian attire offers. He twists his wrists and his treasured knives slide into his waiting hands. Her eyes widen at his use of magic but he doesn’t give her time to think too much. Loki strikes fast and agile and she’s forced to step back or get stabbed. She ducks under his arm and her rings slice across his thigh, making him growl at the sting. He spins around her next punch, sinking his knife into her upper arm when she leaves an opening. She stumbles away from him, hand clutching her wound. Loki turns to find Steve on the ground under the scarred man and flips his other knife in his hand. Taking aim, he lets the knife fly and smiles when it meets its target in the man’s back. The man pulls away from pummeling Steve in shock. Loki is standing over him and pulling the knife out of his back only to sink it into his chest and pull it out again so the man collapses at his feet. He turns to hold his hand out to Steve, who is staring at the blood that now covers his knife and his clothes in abject horror. He accepts the hand nonetheless, too shocked and high on the rush that comes with fighting to do much else.

“Staying here for the night would be unwise, I think.” Loki comments, letting his knives dissipate to his pocket dimension. “Should we take our leave?”

Loki stops at the bar to pick up their meals, now cold but still edible. He and Steve make their exit before any of the other patrons or the innkeeper decides to come after them. 

Steve’s shock is wearing off and he seems to be processing what just happened. “Did you just…? Is he dead?”

“If you mean the scarred man who was trying to punch your face into the floor, he’ll be fine. Provided they get him medical help before he bleeds out.”

Steve gapes at him. “You can’t just—that’s—”

Loki shakes his head at his stammering. “To be fair, you started the fight. What was I supposed to do, let him kill you? Because that’s what he would have done.”

“That big brute was being awful though! There was this lady who let me sit at her table and it was clear she was trying to get him to leave and he wouldn’t listen. Not even when she punched him, and you should have seen his face, he got really angry, he was about to hit her back, I could tell—”

“So you decided to step in? That seemed like a perfectly wise course of action to you?”

“I wasn’t thinking about _wise_ , I just didn’t want her to get hurt. And he was being a bully.” 

“A bully,” Loki repeats incredulously. 

Steve frowns at his plate of food. “Bullies need to be stopped or they’ll just carry on doing what they like and hurting people in the process.”

Loki shakes his head, picking up a leg of chicken to bite it. “I’m beginning to see why Bucky was so protective.”

“What do you mean?”

“You,” Loki replies with a pointed look, “are stupidly self-sacrificial.”

Steve tilts his chin up, refusing to back down. “I’m just trying to do what’s right. That’s all I really want.” 

“You disgust me. How so very _noble_. You’re just like my brother.” 

“It’s not a bad thing, to want to help people.”

“But why? What has anyone ever done for you, to automatically deserve such kindness? The world is a cruel place and it’s people are twisted. No one cares about anyone but themselves.” 

“That’s not how I see it. It doesn’t matter what other people do, I’m going to try and do right by them. If I don’t, how am I any better?”

Loki is silent as he thinks Steve’s words over. They slow their pace as they get further into the woods; they’ve gotten far enough that they should be relatively hard to find if someone from the bar is still interested in revenge. Finally Loki says, “You are too kind for this world, Steve Rogers. How have you survived this long?”

This makes Steve laugh. “I guess kindness is a good survival tactic?”

“Or it’s Bucky protecting you.”

“Hey!”

“If he’s pulling you out of all these late night bar fights, he’s the only reason you have all your bones unbroken.” 

Steve has no response for that. It makes Loki smile, tilting his head up to stare through the tree branches, stars just barely visible. He shakes his head, almost fondly. “You are certainly an enigma.” 

“Is that a good thing?”

“I confess, when we first met, I thought you were an idiot. And incredibly predictable, dull, boring. You’ve proven me wrong.”

“An idiot?”

"Well, you met a stranger in the woods and promptly decided taking him home was a _brilliant_ idea, even though his first instinct was to point a sword at your throat.”

Steve rubs a hand down the back of his neck, cheeks colouring pink. His skin is pale enough that it’s visible even in the poor lighting. “Okay, not my smartest moment, I admit.”

“Still, you have turned out to be intriguing. At first glance, you’re the typical nice guy, eager to please and stupid enough to be kind to everyone. Now I see you’re more than that; you’re also manipulative to get what you want and incredibly danger prone.” 

Loki mulls over his words and then amends, “Maybe you’re still a bit stupid. No one smart willing puts themselves in situations where they get hurt that often.”

Steve laughs and it’s loud in the quiet of the forest. Loki quite likes it; it’s a bright, large thing coming from someone rather small and unassuming. The contrast is interesting. “That’s fair. I could say the same about you, though.” 

“How so? Surely you can’t claim I possess the same level of stupidity as you. I’m fairly certain I would have noticed if I had the same tendency to help strangers in forests.” 

Steve grins. “That’s not what I mean. I mean my first impression of you isn’t who you really are. You put on a facade, pretending you don’t care about others but you do, I can tell.”

A chill runs down Loki’s spine at Steve’s words. Him? Caring? He would hope not; caring was dangerous. A liability. 

“That’s why you stayed so long. You could have just gone back to the palace. And sure, you have a mission, but there are probably more qualified travel companions and you still picked me. You care.” 

Steve’s words are simple and honest. And he’s right, isn’t he? That's the truth of it, laid out plain and simple, and it makes Loki feel like his very bones are bare to the world. The feeling of such nakedness, of his carefully constructed presentation being so easily reduced to his true feelings is an uncomfortable one. 

Loki is suddenly reminded of what Steve’s mother said, the very day they met. 

_My Steve has a way of getting to the heart of people. If you stick around him that mask is going to disappear real soon._

Disappear indeed. Loki's immediate instinct is to retreat, to rebuild his protective layers until his true feelings are safe, hidden away once more. So he says nothing, letting Steve’s words linger in the air between them, letting them slip away as they continue their trek through the woods. He sets aside the kind things Steve has done in the short time they’ve known each other and reminds himself of why he’s here. He has an artifact to retrieve and then he can go home. Steve is merely a pawn, a means of achieving his objective. 

Nothing more and nothing less. That’s all Loki has to remember and it’ll all be fine. 

▷━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◁

After walking for an hour they leave the woods, finding a smaller inn to stay in. Steve is tired and quiet. Loki can’t blame him; he doesn’t feel like talking much right now either. They take the last available room, eager to fall asleep. 

Loki frowns when Steven stops in the doorway. He looks over his head and realizes why. In their haste to get to sleep, they’ve forgotten that this room only has one bed. Sighing, Loki pushes past Steve and sets his bag down so it rests against the night stand. 

Steve shuts the door behind him and stares at the bed. “I can sleep on the floor.” 

Loki scoffs. “Don’t be stupid. It might not be that big but surely we can share without any issues. You aren’t particularly tall.”

Steve’s face goes pink. “Sure, we’ll fit, but if you’re uncomfortable I’m happy with the floor, I swear.”

Loki smiles, sitting on the edge of the bed to pull off his boots. “While your chivalry is endearing, it is entirely unnecessary. I’ve slept in worse places and with worse people. I pity anyone that has to share a bed with my brother. His snoring is impossible to ignore.”

Steve laughs at that. “Bucky’s the same. He’ll deny it to the day he dies though.” 

His face twists into one of hesitation. “You’re really okay with sharing the bed?”

“Steven,” Loki says flatly. The use of his full name makes Steve’s face scrunch with displeasure. “Ask me again and I will leave to sleep outside.”

That makes him drop onto the bed next to Loki, letting himself fall until he lays with his legs hanging off the edge, feet not quite reaching the ground. “Alright. We’ll share.”

“Perfect. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to wash up.”

“Sure,” Steve turns his head far enough to look at Loki. “I think I’ll just go to sleep.” 

Loki leaves Steve in the bed, heading out of their small room. The innkeeper points him in the direction of the showers and he’s glad to find that it’s empty. Which makes sense, considering how late it is. 

He washes methodically, glad to have the grime from a day's travel in the woods off his skin. He enjoyed travelling and knew the luxury of a shower wasn’t common unless one was travelling near towns, so he took advantage when the opportunity presented itself. Rarely is the water warm but that was easily fixed with his magic. The inn isn’t too far from the woods but it seemed to be far enough that the magic warding had no effect. 

Loki didn’t stay in the showers long, eager to get to bed. He is passing the innkeeper’s office when an Asgardian soldier walks out. He’s quick to duck his head, turning to go in a different direction. He walks slowly, listening to the sound of the door opening and closing; the guard is gone. Loki turns to walk back towards the office, throwing up a quick glamour to change his appearance ever so slightly; different enough to not look like Prince Loki of Asgard but similar enough that the innkeeper will still recognize him as the man who rented a room earlier that evening. 

The innkeeper is just coming out of her office when Loki approaches, her hand full of a stack of flyers. She stops him by holding out a flyer. “Hey. You’re travelling around these parts, yeah?”

“I am, yes.” He takes the flyer from her, looking over it with a quick glance. His face stares at him, clean ink lines forming his dark eyes and hair. 

“They're looking for their missing prince. Stupid if you ask me. Royal goes missing, they’re probably dead.”

Loki arches an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“Lots of people ‘round here aren’t very fond of the royals. Bad history. Sending out flyers isn't going to help much.”

“Ah,” Loki hums. “Best to stay optimistic?”

She snorts, walking away. “Sure, sure.” 

Loki watches her go, tilting his head in consideration. _Not fond of the royals… interesting_. 

Thoroughly exhausted from the day's events, he makes the journey back to their room, ready to sleep. Further planning could be done tomorrow. Steve is already asleep, curled up on his side. Loki lays down carefully next to him, taking care not to wake him. The bed is just barely big enough to fit them and he can feel Steve’s warmth against his back. It’s strangely comforting and Loki falls asleep quickly. 

▷━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◁

When Loki wakes the next morning, Steve is gone. He finds him standing across the room, pulling on his boots. His movements are quick and jerky; he’s angry about something. 

“Good morning Steve,” Loki says, wanting to gauge his reaction. 

Steve’s voice is flat and cold when he replies. “Good morning.”

Definitely angry. The question was, why? “Did something happen?”

Steve holds up the flyer in wordless reply. _Ah._

“I see.” 

“I see? That’s all you’re going to say?”

“I can explain.” 

“I sure hope so, _Prince Loki_.” Steve walks across the room to drop the now crumpled flyer on the bed and stands there with his arms crossed, waiting. Loki sighs and sits up, crossing his legs beneath the blanket. 

“I’m not a noble.”

“No. You’re the missing royal and you lied about it.”

“You already know why.”

“Do I? Because at this point, I’m really wondering if I’ve made a mistake, agreeing to travel with you.” 

“You haven’t.” The words are out of his mouth before Loki can really think them through.

Steve’s eyes widen the tiniest bit at the speed of his response. Loki struggles to think of something to say to fix that mishap and settles on “I… enjoy your company.”

Surely an appeal with kindness will soothe the sting of his lies?

Steve’s anger lessens, eyebrows furrowing as he debates the truth of Loki’s statement. He seems to decide it’s honest, probably due to the fact that Loki’s cheeks are turning pink. 

“Look, it’s been fun. I won’t say it hasn’t because, yeah, I like travelling with you.” Steve sighs, moving to sit on the edge of the bed. “I just _really_ hate being lied to. And I don’t see why you feel like you have to? You know you can trust me, right? We’ve been over this.” 

Loki avoids looking at Steve by staring at the flyer instead. Stupid really, to leave it around where Steve could find it. Should’ve burned it before he fell asleep. Then again, if the innkeeper was planning on distributing her stack of flyers, it wouldn’t have been long before Steve saw one. Futile really, to try and keep him from seeing any flyers at all. 

Drawing in a deep breath, Loki speaks. Telling him the truth at this point will do less damage than lying further. “It was easy to let you believe I was a noble because you drew your own conclusions the day we met and I just… didn’t say anything. Didn’t see a need to because, like I said before we left, this mission was meant to be a secret.” 

Steve considers his words for a moment. “Anything else I should know?”

Loki hesitates for a brief second. “The Tesseract is what we’re looking for. It isn’t just a family artifact, it’s a powerful magic object. My father didn’t say why he wanted it.”

“How powerful?”

Loki shrugs a shoulder. “Can be used to increase magical strength ten fold and supposedly travel from one place to another instantaneously. Other uses of its power remain unknown.” 

Steve’s eyes widen. “You could do a lot of damage with that kind of power.” 

"Yes.” 

“And how do you know that your father won’t hurt people with it?”

“I don’t.” 

“Why are you finding it for him then?”

Loki’s laugh is bitter. “I’m not to question his orders. I’m merely here to fulfill the duty assigned to me. What would you have me do, go home and tell him ‘Sorry, I was concerned with the ethics of what you wished to use the Tesseract for, I don’t want to find it for you?’”

“Wouldn’t he answer you if you just asked him why he wanted it?”

Loki shakes his head in disbelief. “You don’t know my father. He’s a stubborn man and does what he wants with little resistance.”

“Well, that’s stupid.” 

“It’s the way it is.” 

“You could just… not take it back to him.” 

“Because there’s the slightest potential for him to use it for nefarious purposes?”

“No one should have that much power, Loki.”

Loki slips neatly out of the bed, picking up his boots. “That’s what you think. But I will complete this mission, with or without you. If you’re so against me taking the Tesseract back to Asgard, feel free to leave. Try and stop me and you will regret it.” 

With that, Loki leaves the room with his bag, not looking back to see if Steve is following. He pays for the room and starts walking. He isn’t sure where he’s going; he hasn’t had a chance to plan what to do next. His thoughts are a mess, the idea of Steve not accompanying him for the rest of his journey somehow more disappointing than he thought it would be. Loki’s aimless wandering is stopped when a hand tugs at his sleeve. 

It’s Steve, hair still messy from sleep and breathing heavy. He must have run all the way from the inn. Loki feels a pang of guilt as he watches Steve try to catch his breath before he can speak. He pulls a waterskin from his bag and holds it out to him. Steve takes it with a nod of thanks. 

When he can finally breathe evenly again, he speaks. “I still don’t like it, but I’ll help you. No sense in me coming with you this far and going home on my own now, right?”

His logic is weak but Loki doesn’t care. The elation he feels is stupid and unnecessary but he cannot deny that he is ridiculously glad to have Steve’s company. 

He expresses none of this, just nodding and tucking the waterskin back into his bag. “Well, then, we need to figure where to look next. I wanted to gather information at the first inn we stopped at, but the fight killed that plan rather quickly.”

Steve looks sheepish. “Sorry.”

“No matter. We’ll just have to speak to people in this town, see what we can learn. If we split up we have a greater chance of finding something useful.” 

Steve nods. “Makes sense. What do I look for?”

“Don’t be too specific in your questions. Act like a traveller, a nomad, interested in local history. Ask about local legends, pay attention to anything mentioning powerful artifacts.”

Steve gives him a wry smile. “You’ve good at this, hm?”

This makes Loki stop for a second. Rarely in Asgard was it considered a _good_ thing to be able to manipulate people into giving away information. Again, he voices none of this and says instead, “It’s a gift. We’ll meet back outside the inn around noon.” 

“See you then,” Steve says. He walks away, heading for the market further down the street. Loki scans his surroundings and decides to just walk. He doesn’t know the town well and as such has no idea where most people would be gathered this time of day. Typically, pubs or inns are best when gathering information but it was just barely noon; no sane person would be at either establishment this early in the day. 

Loki wanders past houses and children running down the street. This town felt different than Brooklyn in that it was quiet, neighbours merely nodding to greet each other and children playing but not loudly. They run past on silent feet, faces lit up with joy but no laughter to be heard. It is quite eerie, Loki admits in the safety of his own head. 

The buildings are set fairly close together but some have narrow pathways sneaking between them, hidden from the sun by the overhanging roofs of the adjacent buildings. Loki stays alert as he passes them, wary of what, or _who_ , may lurk in the hidden pockets of this town. It was always best to be careful in foreign territory. 

A hand, barely visible from the depths of a large brown sleeve, reaches out of one such hidden alcove, beckoning him to enter. A discreet glance up and down the street shows no one has noticed. Or no one wants to notice. Either way, Loki is on his own. 

He steps closer to the dark space and the hand reaches out again to beckon, this time grabbing him by the sleeve and tugging him forward. Loki quickens his steps, keeping up with the brisk pace of the surprisingly tall person dragging him into this alley. It was either follow or yell for help and surely he could protect himself away from the cursed wards of the forest. Might as well see what this insistent stranger wanted with him. 

They stop when they are well within the secluded confines of the alley. The stranger finally turns to face him, face still shadowed by his cloak. Loki waits. He was dragged here and this person was clearly eager to speak to him, so he could speak first. 

The voice that breaks the silence between them is heavily accented in a way Loki isn’t familiar with. It’s also older than Loki expected; older than Steve by several years, Loki guesses, worn with age and raspy. 

“I know what you’re looking for. And I know where it is.”

“Do you?” Loki raises an eyebrow. 

“There’s little use in playing games, young prince. I know more than you think.”

Loki’s face pinches in displeasure. What an unpleasant man. “Alright, then. What am I looking for?”

“The tesseract. Which I hid many, many years ago.”

“You hid?”

“I spent much of my youth searching for the very same artifact. Drunk on power as many young men are. I held it in my possession for a short while, before deciding to hide it because it brought me so much grief. Power is tempting but only ever ends up destroying you.”

“I see.” Loki’s mind processes the information he’s given. “And you’re helping me out of the goodness of your heart?”

“Don’t be stupid. We both know how much power it holds. I’d like to keep it out of the wrong hands.”

“You hardly seem to think my hands are the right ones.”

“No. But your companion, Steven Rogers. He’s honourable.”

Loki has to agree; Steve is stupidly noble. “Fair enough. Where can I find the tesseract, then?”

“You’ll have to go back the way you came. I buried it east of the river, beneath a large oak tree. There’s a hollow in the tree, unlocked only by this enchantment-” he pauses to offer a slip of parchment “-It’s a day’s trip walking from town.”

Loki nods as he speaks, taking the parchment from him. “You buried it in the woods so it would be protected by the wards.”

“The wards do help in protecting it, but they were not present when I buried it.”

“Ah. Do you know why the wards were put up?”

The man shook his head. “Only that they went up a few years ago. I’ve lived here a long time, Prince. I’ve never seen such a vicious rejection of magic. Though, given my experience with magical artifacts, I cannot say the wards upset me.”

Loki frowns slightly. This man is clearly aware of who he is and what he’s doing; he wonders what he thinks about Loki’s use of magic. He’s so used to the disdain he typically receives when people hear of his magic use and he has no desire to hear the same complaints again, so he moves the conversation swiftly on. 

“You say you’ve had rather unpleasant experiences with the tesseract. What do you mean?”

The man says nothing for a moment, considering his words. Then he tips his head, reaching up with a hand to pull back the hood of his cloak. Loki manages to react with little more than a gasp. The man’s face is a ruin of absent skin. All that’s left is eerily smooth red, stretched so thin it looks more like a skull than a face. 

“Trying to harness the power of the tesseract to make myself stronger has only led to this. Please make sure it is not misused.”

Loki nods. “I’ll find Steve and we’ll leave immediately.”

He doesn’t wait for a reply, turning and walking out of the alley. The man says nothing, just watches him go.


	2. Chapter 2

It takes an hour to find Steve amongst the busy marketplace and another half to finish packing their things. Loki explains as they prepare to leave, using his magic to fold everything neatly into his bag. 

“And you’re sure we can trust him?” Steve asks, smoothing the bed covers until they’re restored to their original state. 

“We really don’t have much choice. And I would have known if he was lying.”

Steve raises an eyebrow at him. 

“Lying is what I’m good at. He was honest about where he buried it, at least.”

Steve picks up his own bag, walking to where Loki is holding the door open. He shrugs as he passes. “Okay. I trust you.”

Loki recovers relatively quickly from the straightforward admission. He needs to get used to Steve’s care and trust, it’s embarrassing to be caught off guard so often. 

Judging by the glimpse of the smirk Loki catches on Steve’s face before he speeds up to walk ahead, Steve knows exactly what he’s doing and enjoys it. Admittedly, Loki enjoyed his hidden mischievous side, even when Steve used it against him. 

It’s a good day for walking, which Loki is grateful for. Complaining about the weather is beneath him but it is so much more pleasant to travel without rain soaking through his clothes. They head straight for the river, making good time. The lack of strenuous activity that morning means Steve has little problem keeping up with a slightly faster pace. They reach the river by the time the sun is passing directly overhead and stop at the bank to rest and eat. 

Steve slips his shoes off to sit with his feet dipped in the water. He watches the lazy current swirl past as he eats, ripe fruit soft in his hands. Loki watches him quietly, noting the way the pale sunlight still manages to make his hair shine. It’s the brightest thing in the woods right now. It suits him, in all his stupidly scrawny glory. 

“I’m starting to understand why they were selling this fruit so cheap,” Steve laughs. He holds his hands high and away from himself in a feeble attempt to keep fruit juice off his clothes. The overly ripe fruit is slowly turning to mush in his hands and the juice is sliding down to his wrists, dripping off slowly. Steve turns to him in a silent plea for help, blue eyes wide and striking against his pale skin. 

Loki is sitting close enough to see the varying shades of blue. He wonders if he got that from his mother. Then he turns his head away; can’t get distracted now, they’re so close to finding the Tesseract. Steve successfully gets the last of the fruit in his mouth and then leans forward to dip his hands into the water, cleansing them of the fruit juice. 

Loki’s quiet as he eyes move slowly across the trees on the opposite side of the river. It’s quiet here, not many people travelling this far into the woods. Not many would have reason to; they left the path behind a while ago. It’s for that reason the gleam of some metal between the tree trunks set him on edge. 

“Steve,” Loki said, nudging him into standing. “We need to go.”

Steve looks up, already shaking the water off his hands and following close behind. 

“Walk as quietly as possible,” is all Loki says, guiding them away from the riverbank and onwards to their destination. When they’re a suitable distance away and Loki can no longer see who’s following them, 

_(which means nothing, this forest is warded against magic and he’s at a disadvantage, what if they’re still being followed--)_

Loki explains. “I saw someone. On the other side of the river.”

“Watching us?” Steve asks with a frown.

“What other reason would they have to stray from the path as we did? This area of the forest remains undisturbed. No one travels this way unless they have good reason.”

“So someone else is looking for the Tesseract.” Steve concludes.

“Or doesn’t want us to find it,” Loki says. “Either way, we need to get there as soon as possible.”

Steve tilts his head up, searching for the sun’s position in the sky. “We still have… half a day? We can make it before sunset.”

Loki nods, picking up the pace. He remembers to not walk too fast, out of consideration for Steve’s health, but this pace should help them make sufficient progress.

It’s much easier to find the oak tree than Loki thought it would be. The trees around them give way to a clearing, a near perfect ring of meadow and in the center stands a tree that’s probably older than he is. 

It stretches high above them, limbs calling to the sky, trunk weathered and roots so large they stretch above the ground, as tall as Steve. Loki walks around the tree, finds the hollow and stands before it, pulling the parchment from his pocket. He reads the incantation, the foreign language strange on his tongue. 

“Is that it?” Steve asks, when nothing happens. 

“Yes. Be patient.”

Steve is quiet for a moment. “Are you sure you read the whole thing?”

“Would _you_ like to read it? I had no idea you were so well versed in the ancient magic dialects.”

Steve scoffs. “Yeah, yeah. Just making sure because nothing is happening.”

“I’m aware, Steve.” Loki says stiffly. His eyes dart from the still empty tree hollow to the branches above. Something was wrong. That man must have lied and they’ve just spent _a whole day_ on a foolishly pointless treasure hunt, why had he trusted him?

“Should something be happening?”

Loki is startled out of his thoughts by a woman’s voice. They turn to find her standing there, grey cloak covering most of her body, hood pulled back just enough for them to see her face and some of her bright red hair. A few paces behind her stands a man in similar dress, quiver on his back full of arrows and bow presumably hidden beneath his cloak. Both stand alert, posture he recognizes from the palace guards back home. 

These are people to be wary of. 

Steve is watching quietly, waiting for Loki’s judgement. Loki eyes the strangers for a moment before speaking. “That depends on whether or not we were lied to.”

A nice neutral statement. Let them infer what they will. 

The woman arches a brow. The corner of her mouth lifts in the barest hint of amusement. It’s controlled; Loki only sees it because she wants him to. 

“Never fun, being lied to.”

“No,” Loki says, tone light and agreeable. “Especially when it costs a day of travel.”

“Got someplace to be?” The archer finally speaks. 

“Just hoping to be home for dinner,” Steve smiles. It’s clear they don’t buy it. 

“It’s getting dark,” the woman points out. “These woods are dangerous at night. Allow us to escort you.”

Keeping an eye on potential threats is their best option, all things considered. “Such a kind offer. How could we refuse?”

Steve glances at him, eyes widening in surprise. Loki doesn’t respond, tucking the hand with the scroll behind his back and increasing the strength of his basic light spell so it’s concentrated. It burns through the thin paper with ease. The ash is scattered as he raises the hand to beckon to Steve. “Come on, we don’t want to keep our wonderful guides waiting.”

Steve nods in agreement. “We never got your names,” he says to the woman. 

Loki catches her grin as she turns away, starting to walk away from the old tree. “Natalia. This is Barton.” 

Barton just inclines his head slightly, waiting for Steve and Loki to walk ahead before following. Flanking them from front and back makes it harder for them to escape. Very clever, these two. 

“I’m Steve and this is-” Loki gives him a sharp kick just below the knee. The way Steve turns to glare at him makes it clear he doesn’t appreciate it. He shakes his head in a way that seems to imply he can’t believe Loki doesn’t trust him. Well, Loki thinks, can’t be too careful.

Steve recovers smoothly though, barely a seconds pause. “This is _Luke_.” He pointedly stares at Loki as he speaks.

“Nice to meet you, boys. What are you doing this far into the woods, if you don’t mind me asking? Looked like you were searching for something back at the tree.”

“Just travelling.” Loki replies. “We’ve been going from town to town. Going through the woods provides some adventure.”

“Adventure, hm? This one doesn’t look like he can handle much.” She nods in Steve’s direction.

Steve bristles, drawing himself up to his full height. It’s rather adorable, the way his face scrunches in fury and he still just barely comes up to Loki’s chest. 

“I can handle more than you think.”

“I’m sure you can.” 

Surprisingly, Natalia’s words feel sincere, not like empty platitudes. She’s a very talented actor. 

“May I ask why you are here?” Loki says. 

“You could ask. No telling whether we’ll answer.” Barton replies. 

“Just keeping an eye on things,” Natalia says. “The king likes to make sure there are no intruders in the forests. Can’t be ambushed because we let our guard down.”

Loki hums in agreement. “The woods stretch across an entire border, don’t they?”

She nods in answer. “You know a lot about the area. Been travelling long?”

“A few months. I met Steve not too long ago and we agreed it would be nice to have a travel companion.”

“Where are you from, then? Your accent isn’t local.”

“Alfheim,” Loki names one of the kingdoms he and Thor had visited with their parents when they were younger. “Quite far from here.”

Barton whistles. “I’ll say. It’s across the sea. Why come all the way here?”

“I enjoy exploring foreign lands,” Loki says simply. “And there’s good company.”

Steve smiles at this. Loki pretends he doesn’t see it.

“What about you?” Barton asks. 

“I’m from Brooklyn,” Steve says. Loki approves of the honesty; the best deception is interwoven with some truth. “Decided it would be nice to hit the road for a bit, get out of the village I grew up in.

“Enjoying yourself so far?” Natalia asks. 

“Luke’s a good partner. His travel experience has made it a smooth journey.”

“No trouble, then? We’ve heard of some bar fights breaking out in a town just outside the woods. Nasty, those fights.”

Loki catches Steve’s eye. Barton’s tone is casual, making it sound like he’s just exchanging local gossip. It’s a calculated move to bring up the fight though; they have been following them for far longer than Loki realized and they want him to know. 

“We were lucky enough to avoid the chaos,” Loki replies with an even tone. “We went to bed early. Travelling is fun but tiring and Steve here needs his rest.”

They’re all aware of the lies at this point. The rest of the walk is spent in silence, broken only when Steve speaks almost an hour later. 

“This isn’t the way we came. We should have seen the [river] by now. Where are you taking us?”

His voice is tight, face carefully blank. He _really_ doesn’t like being lied to. 

They’ve stopped walking. Steve steps closer to Loki and Loki shifts so his feet are spread just slightly, evenly balancing his weight should he need to strike. His hand drifts to the knives strapped to his waist, hidden by his coat. 

Natalia and Barton remain in front and behind them, forcing Loki to turn so his back meets Steve’s. Natalia’s stance is relaxed, weight leaning on one leg. But Loki can see how her partner is tense, bow in hand, ready to shoot them if they try and bolt. 

“Our boss would like to meet you,” Natalia says. “Nothing to worry about.”

“Why not tell us then?” Loki asks. 

“We don’t know you,” she replies. “Didn’t your mother tell you not to trust strangers in the woods?”

“Yeah,” Steve says. “We shouldn’t have trusted you.”

Her smile is sharp. “Don’t be scared boys. It’s not too far now and we’ll let you go afterward. It really is just to talk.”

Steve turns to Loki, waiting for him to decide what they do. Loki simply nods in his direction. _You decide_ , he mouths.

Steve seems surprised by this display of trust but elated. He stands straighter, frowning slightly as he gazes at Barton and Natalia in turn. “Fine. A short talk and we’re free.” 

“Wonderful,” Barton mutters. “Can we actually get there before it’s dark?”

▷━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◁

Natalia spoke the truth when she said their destination wasn’t much further. They only for several minutes more before stopping at a door hidden deep in the foliage. It’s built into the ground, and when Barton lifts the door, he reveals a drop into darkness, the only thing visible being the ladder. 

Barton descends first; his long range weapon was well-suited to keeping them in check when outdoors but here is virtually useless. Loki has no doubt he has other skills but Natalia is the best choice to descend last. Loki chooses to go down before Steve. Should he slip, at least Loki can catch him. 

Once Natalia shuts the door behind her, the darkness is engulfing and Loki can only focus on his own careful progress and Steve above him. His mind taunts him with gruesome images of the slight man falling, head smashing against cold, hard earth. He pushes the idea away; Steve is fine, he’s not going to lose him. 

The ladder ends in a tunnel that splits off two ways. The walls are smooth and lit by torches; clearly this hidden base has been here for some time. 

They pass a few people, dressed similarly to their captors. The people dip into shallow bows when they see Natalia and Barton. Loki surmises they are of relatively high rank within the organization. Their actions are unquestioned and they are treated with respect. 

Natalia stops at a door, pushing it open slightly with one hand and then stepping to the side, motioning with her head for them to enter. Loki exchanges a glance with Steve and takes hold of his wrist so he can pull him into the room behind him. He’d like to keep his one friend close in a base full of unknowns. 

The room is fairly large, illuminated by what look to be mechanical devices embedded into the ceiling. This must be the work, King Tony so enthusiastically mentioned during the dinner, that first night of the Asgardian visit. Loki had dismissed it at the kingdom’s pitiful attempts at replacing magic. Looking at it now, he still thinks it paltry to what he can do with his seidr. 

A large table sits in the middle of the room with multiple seats around it; clearly designed for team briefings. A man sits at the head, one eye covered by a patch similar to his father’s. He’s speaking in low tones to a man standing at his side. The man nods at something eyepatch says, picks up several documents from the table and leaves. 

It is then the man’s severe stare turns to them. There is silence for a moment as he assesses them. “You know, this kingdom doesn’t take kindly to strangers.”

A relatively bland statement, one Loki doesn’t need to be told. He is a prince, he’s well aware that no kingdom likes intruders. This being the first thing this man mentions though, that is calculated. Right away, he makes it clear he is suspicious of Loki’s origins. 

The man waves his hand at the empty seats. “Sit.”

Loki gives him a smile. “Do we have the pleasure of knowing who we’re speaking to?”

The man’s eye narrows. “Director Fury.”

Steve lifts a hand in a half wave. “I’m Steve. This is Luke.”

Fury’s eyes shift to Steve, expression unchanging. Steve isn’t smiling either; his face remains impassive despite his relatively pleasant tone. “It’s great to meet you, Director, but we can’t stay long. Travelling to do and all, I’m sure you understand. He ends this with the most polite smile Loki has ever seen. It’s incredible how good of an act Steve can put on. It’s a good thing Loki is skilled at keeping his face neutral; it’s all he can do to keep from laughing. 

“Well, Mr. Rogers. You’re going to be here as long as we want you. We’ve got a few questions.”

“Natalia mentioned that,” Steve says. He doesn’t react to being addressed by his last name. Clearly, this organization knows a lot about both of them. There’s no telling how long they’ve been monitored. 

“Well,” Loki says, leaning back. “Ask away. So long as we get to ask questions of our own”

“You think this is a game?”

“I’m rather enjoying myself,” Loki says, grin sharp.

“I’m sure.” At Fury’s nod, Natalia and Barton leave the room. “Let’s cut the crap, shall we? We’re all too smart to be playing this game.”

Loki stiffens ever so slightly. “What is it you think you know?”

Fury scoffs. “Oh, please. There are missing posters with your face on them all over the kingdom.”

Loki curses his brother out in his head. Thor wasn’t even present and he was ruining the mission. Typical. 

“Alright, then. You’ve got the prince of Asgard in custody. What now? If you work for the king, why not return me safe and sound and reap the rewards?”

Steve frowns at his nonchalant tone. “What are you doing?” he hisses, in a not very inconspicuous way. 

Loki gives his hand a squeeze beneath the table, a reassurance. _I know what I’m doing_. At this point, Steve’s trust in his actions is as natural as breathing. Steve relaxes just slightly; still on guard but willing to go along. 

“S.H.I.E.L.D. works for the king in a… discreet manner. We were established by the current king’s father, King Howard, and some of his closest advisors. Public displays, especially those involving foreign dignitaries, aren’t really our area of expertise.”

“Your king has a league of spies, working from the shadows. That is interesting information.”

“You’d be lying if you said Asgard didn’t. Clearly, you have some form of training. Am I right in assuming you’re on some sort of mission?”

“What makes you say that?” Steve asks. 

“A prince of Asgard disappears on a visit to the neighbouring kingdom. Despite this, his father doesn’t seem to be too worried. Usually, “losing” foreign royalty is seen as a declaration of war. Which means the disappearance was intentional and there’s some other plan in play.”

Loki’s impressed. “Solid reasoning, Fury.”

“Thank you,” he replies, voice dry. “Now, what I want to know is what is your mission? What are you searching for?”

“A family heirloom.” Loki says. 

“Lotta trouble for an heirloom.”

“This one is particularly valuable to my family,” Loki replies.

“And you’re here because...?” Fury asks Steve. 

“I’m just interested in doing the right thing,” Steve says, hands lifted in the universal sign of innocence. “I thought he could use some help from someone actually born and raised here in York.”

Fury frowns but leaves it at that. “Here’s the thing. We can’t have the prince of a foreign kingdom missing on a diplomatic visit, it makes us look bad. And we certainly can’t have him wandering about as he pleases. Issues of inter-kingdom relations and discretion, you understand.”

Loki hums. “Every kingdom has their secrets. And if your organization is one of spies, that begs the question: what are _you_ hiding?”

“Don’t change the subject. What exactly is this family heirloom and can we help you find it? I’d like to get you out of the kingdom as soon as possible.”

Loki thought it over. The chances of him knowing what the Tesseract was, in a kingdom where magic had been shunned for almost 50 years… they were low, but he isn’t going to risk it. Better to lie. 

“It’s called the Winter Casket,” Loki says. “Obtained as a war souvenir by my father. Stolen from us several years ago. Searches in our own kingdom have proved to be fruitless, so we’re expanding our area of search.”

This was all a complete fallacy. The casket was safe in the vaults back home. 

“Our knowledge of the casket is limited. We know of its existence but not much more than that.”

“That’s too bad,” Steve says. “It’s all right, though. We got a lead, before we met your people in the woods.”

“Oh? Good for you. Well, seeing as we can’t help you with what you’re looking for, would you like access to our resources? Could be useful.”

Fury dangles the offer for help like bait. Give them an excuse to have one of their spies accompany them wherever they go? Not a chance. 

Loki stands in one smooth motion. “A truly kind offer, Director, but it won’t be necessary. We will manage.”

Fury raises an eyebrow but nods. “Alright, if you say so. Barton will see you out.”

They start for the door, where Barton is already waiting. 

“Prince Loki,” Fury calls. He continues when Loki turns back to look at him. “Don’t start any trouble in my kingdom. It won’t end well for you.”

A warning to stop looking. There’s something they don’t want him to find. 

“Worry not, Fury,” Loki says with a grin. “I know how to behave.”

▷━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◁

Natalia watches as they leave the room, waiting to hear their footsteps fade before turning to Fury to speak. 

“You let them go.”

Fury sighs, long and heavy. “We know they’re lying. They don’t know we already have what they’re looking for. Keeping them in custody will only make them suspicious. I’d rather let them leave and keep an eye on them.”

“They found the tree in two weeks. It took us almost a year. They’ll probably figure out your lies soon.”

“And then what? The prince is on a secret mission, he has no support from his kingdom. He would have to come for the Tesseract himself.” 

“Don’t underestimate him, sir.”

“Please, Natasha, you know me better than that.”

“What are you planning?”

“I need you to follow them. Send word if they’re poking their heads in places they shouldn’t be. We need to make sure they don’t get too close.”

“That sounds rudimentary at best.”

“I’ll set some things in motion in case they do come back for the Tesseract. We’ll be prepared.” 

Natalia nods. “I’ll leave in the morning.”

▷━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◁

By the time they reach the inn, it’s well into the night. The moon shines above them, making Steve’s hair shine in the dark. Loki’s glad Steve’s walking in front of him; the darkness helps to hide his staring but the added security doesn’t hurt. 

“So,” Steve says. “What just happened?”

“We were detained by your kingdom’s secret agency, questioned, and released. Which is strange. And we still don’t have the Tesseract.”

“What’s the casket you mentioned?” 

“It is actually a war souvenir. Except it’s sitting in the palace vaults back home.”

“Do you think they believed you?”  
  
Loki frowns. “No, probably not.”

“Why let us go then?”

“They’ll be keeping an eye on us. They’re probably interested in getting what we’re after for themselves.”

“So they don’t know what we’re looking for…”

“But they’re aware it must be of value and powerful.”

“Right. So let us go to look for it and take it from us afterwards.”

They’ve reached the room now. Loki moves swiftly, packing his things. 

“What are you doing?” Steve asks. 

“They will send people to watch us. Better to make it difficult for them. If we travel by night, we can make it to the next town before morning.”

“They’ll catch up eventually.”

“I know,” Loki sighs. “I still want whatever advantage we can get.” He nudges Steve with an elbow as he passes. “Come on, get packing.”

It doesn’t take long; they don’t have much to pack. Loki is looking over the room from where he stands by the door to make sure he hasn’t missed anything. Steve is going through the papers on the desk. He picks up Loki’s missing poster, considers it for a moment, then folds it neatly and slides it into his pack. 

Loki raises an eyebrow. “What’s that for?”

“Free paper,” Steve smiles. 

“You have nothing to write with.”

“I’ve got an old set of charcoals. I take them everywhere.”

“Why?” 

Steve shrugs. “I like to draw. Ma got them for me when I was a kid.”

“Interesting.”

"That I like to draw?”

“Yes.”

“Why is that interesting?” 

“Because it’s you.”

Steve’s brow scrunched in confusion. Loki could not explain what he meant or why it was true. He simply knew it was. Over the course of their time together, Loki had gotten admittedly fond of Steve. As a result, learning anything new about him was interesting. He wanted to know more about him. Past relationships have been rocky. Partners complained of him being too withdrawn. Perhaps they were slightly right, but he was cautious of giving up too much of himself. So few people were trustworthy. 

That being said, if he didn’t want to lose Steve he should at least _try_. 

As they stepped into the hallway, Loki spoke. “My mother likes to draw.”

“Really?” Steve is smiling at him now and it is truly a very nice smile.

“I used to watch her, when I was very young and she had the time. Sometimes she drew in the garden. Other times she painted on the palace balconies.”

Steve whistles quietly. “The views must have been something.”

Loki nods. “Neither of us have much time for it anymore, I’m afraid.” 

Steve bumps him with his shoulder. “I’m sure she’ll make time if you ask. She’s your ma.”

“Perhaps.”

▷━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◁

They reach the next town, a place called Harlem, when it’s still dark. Loki guesses they have an hour, maybe two, until sunrise. They check into an inn and collapse into bed to get what sleep they can. 

As they lay there, Steve turns so he’s facing Loki. “What are we going to do next?”

The bed is just barely big enough to fit both of them. It helps that Steve is so small. As such they’re pressed together beneath the covers, Steve’s chest against Loki’s arm. Loki can feel his breath on his cheek when Steve speaks. 

Loki closes his eyes and considers. “Stay here for a few days. Stay quiet. We don’t need them thinking we’re suspicious.”

“That’s true.” Steve is silent for a moment. “Do you know who Dr. Bruce Banner is?”

Loki shakes his head. Steve probably wouldn’t be able to see the action in the dark but they’re so close it doesn’t matter. 

“He’s our local doctor. My village and this town, along with some others are part of a small group all clustered around the river. We’re pretty far from the larger cities so for medicine we rely on travelling doctors, like him.”

“Doctor… like a healer?”

Steve hums in agreement. “Medicine isn’t his specialty but he helps because there aren’t many travelling doctors around.”

“What does he specialize in?”

“I’m not sure. He is smart, though. We could look for him, see what he knows.”

“Sounds like a plan. We can start looking for him tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Steve’s reply is cut off by a yawn. It’s then Loki notices his shivering. 

“Are you cold?”

“Hm? Oh, I’m fine.”

“ _Steven_.” Loki groans. “You’re cold, I can tell.”

“I’m not!” he insists.

Loki ignores him. He pulls the arm closest to Steve out of the covers and lifts it. “Come here.”

“What?”

“I can’t have my travel partner getting ill because he’s cold. Come on, this way we’ll both stay warm. We’re already sharing the bed.”

Steve hesitates before giving in, shifting closer so Loki can curl his lifted arm around him. Now his head rests on Loki’s chest; no doubt he can hear the cursed beating of Loki’s heart. There’s truly no reason for the traitorous thing to beat so wretchedly fast. 

“Thank you, Loki.” Steve whispers into the dark. 

They say nothing else and soon the exhaustion of travelling during the night catches up to them and they both succumb to sleep.

▷━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◁

When Steve wakes, light is coming through the one window in their room. It’s late morning already and they’re still in bed. Steve doesn’t really mind. From what he’s seen, Loki has a tendency to work until he drops. He doesn’t know how to take a break, so this should be good for him. He probably won’t see it that way, but that doesn’t matter. He’ll think better when he’s well rested. 

They’re still in their clothes from yesterday, covered in dust and sweat. Still, it’s nice to wake up to someone. The last time he had this was with Peggy. It was always a race between them to see who woke up first every morning. It got a bit ridiculous because they were both “unbearably early risers” according to Bucky. 

Now, he just lies in bed, relishing in the comfort of the arms cradling him and watching the face of the sleeping man beside him. Loki’s face is always guarded, expressions carefully controlled. In sleep, that falls away. He’s relaxed, tension gone. He had managed to let down his hair before falling asleep, so now some of the dark strands are falling in his face. It reminds him of the brief time Bucky had long hair, before his ma got him to cut it because she didn’t want him getting lice.

Steve smiles and reaches up a careful hand to brush the hair out of his face. Loki’s eyes open slowly, brilliant green still muddied with sleep. 

“What are you doing?” His words are quiet. 

“I just woke up. Can I braid your hair?”

Loki’s brow scrunches slightly. “If you’d like.”

Steve moves back until he’s leaning against the headboard, tugging at Loki until he moves to lean back against Steve’s chest. It’s a bit awkward with the height difference but they figure it out and soon Loki is settled comfortably and Steve is running his fingers through his hair. 

Loki sighs, content. “You’re good at this.”

Steve laughs. “Used to do this for my ma when she came home from work.”

Steve works away, using his fingers to gently untangle any knots. Loki falls into a light slumber. Steve stares at his hair for a moment before deciding what to do with it. He splits his hair into sections and starts braiding. 

When he’s done, Loki has two braids coming from his temples down into a larger braid with the rest of his hair. Steve nudges Loki. “All done.”

Loki tilts his head back so his forehead is just under Steve’s chin and he can look at Steve’s face. Sleep has softened him. He smiles at Steve, sweet and innocent and says “Thank you.”

Then he’s pulling away, getting off the bed and reaching into his bag, grabbing the first pair of clothes he can find and retreating to the bathroom.

Steve just stares at the closed door, cheeks warm. What was that? He drops his face into his hand, willing the pink to go away. _Get a grip, Steve_. 

He busies himself with getting ready for the day. Unfortunately, there isn’t much to do. They haven’t unpacked anything. He’s already fixed the bedcovers. He just has to wait for his turn in the bathroom. 

Steve decides to pull the poster and his charcoals out of his bag, settling cross legged on the bed. He draws aimlessly, letting his fingers dance across the page. A face takes shape, dark hair spilling over shoulders and even darker eyes hidden by closed eyelids. When he’s finished, it’s Loki’s face on the page, relaxed in sleep as he was when Steve woke. 

_Oh, no_. 

▷━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◁

When Loki comes out of the bathroom, Steve is quick to hide whatever it is he’s holding. His face is red, charcoals scattered around him. 

“You don’t have to show me your drawings,” Loki tells him, crossing the room to put his dirty clothes into his bag. 

“No! I, uh, well… okay, yes. But just this drawing! I’d be happy to show you my art, just. Not this.”

“Alright,” Loki says, voice edged with mirth. “Go ahead then, take your turn.”

Loki busies himself with reordering his bag to his liking until Steve is gone. Then, of course, he takes his chance.  
  
Steve had tucked the drawing into his bag before entering the bathroom. It’s easy enough to find. What Steve drew was entirely unexpected. 

It’s his own face as he’s never seen it. Careful lines trace his face and dark colour fills in his hair. He’s sleeping, calm and at peace. 

It’s beautiful. 

Is this how Steve sees him? Loki doesn’t know what to do with this information. He does know it fills him with joy. An strange feeling of buoyancy, of warmth like soothing hugs and rushing excitement like kisses stolen in hidden chambers of the palace. 

Loki puts the drawing back. The buoyant feeling follows him when he leaves to get them something to eat. The day was off to a radiant start.

▷━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◁

They split up after their late breakfast. Steve is walking down the street when he notices a man running along, waving at people that greet him as they pass. Interest piqued, Steve speeds up in an attempt to catch him. 

It’s only when the man stops at the end of the street, wiping the sweat off his forehead with an arm, that Steve catches up. The man sees him, bent over at the waist, trying to even out his breath, and suppresses a laugh. He comes over to Steve, offering some water. 

“You okay, man?”

Steve still can’t speak, so he just nods, accepting the water with a grateful smile. When his breathing evens out, he says “If my friend were here, he’d yell at me about impulsively deciding to chase after a man running down the street.”

“Your friend sounds smart.”

“Yeah, Bucky’s great.”

“So why are you chasing me down, mystery man?”

“My name’s Steve,” he replies, returning the water. 

“Sam Wilson.”

“Nice to meet you. I just wanted to say hi.”

“You’re a real determined guy.”  
  
“I get that a lot.”

Sam laughs. He tilts his head down the street. “I know a place with some pretty good food. You eat yet?”

“I did, actually.”

“Well, I haven’t. And you look like you need all the food you can get.”

“I’m not _that_ tiny _._ ”

“Sure, sure.” 

As they walk, Steve learns Sam served with the King’s Guard for two years, leaving after losing a partner. Now he’s working with retired soldiers, helping them adjust to normal life again. Steve thinks it’s honourable work. Then Steve explains his journey so far, travelling with Loki and helping with his search for a family heirloom. He leaves out the parts about the Tesseract and the run in with the S.H.I.E.L.D. The bar fight has Sam laughing so loud people stare. 

“That’s a real good story,” Sam says. 

“It’s been fun.”

“So, where’s your friend now?”

“Asking around town for Dr. Banner. We’re looking for him.”

“He showed up yesterday,” Sam says. “He usually stays at the smaller inn just outside town. He’s not great with people.”

Steve nods. “Thanks.”

“No problem. Listen, I have to run, but it was nice meeting you. If you want to find me, I live next to the bakery one street over. Drop by if you have time.”

“That would be great. See you, Sam.”

Steve watches him leave. He finishes off the sweet bun Sam bought for him and heads back to the inn. He needs to tell Loki what he’s learned. 

▷━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◁

_And the morning had started off so well_. 

Now he was pinned to the wall in a shady alley, hair ruined like his morning. The woman with her blade at his neck was glaring at him. He couldn’t help but laugh. “You know, people usually treat me to dinner before pinning me to a wall.”

“You must not be sleeping with the right people.” Her voice has an accent, a familiar one that Loki can’t quite place. 

“Am I right in guessing you have a terrible bedside manner?”

“My bedside manner is lovely. For people I like.” 

“I’ll admit, I’m impressed. Most people find it quite difficult to capture me.”

She ignores his words. “What is the second prince of Asgard doing in a town like this?”

Loki’s eyebrows rise in surprise. “You recognize me.”

“I live in a small town but that doesn’t make me ignorant.”

“Why so defensive?” 

“You don’t need to know.”

Loki watches her for a moment. They’re far enough from the woods. The wards should have less effect here. And if he can move fast enough…

He pulls his head and neck as far back as he can, knocking her hand away in the same movement. He grabs her wrist when she swings it at him and his other hand takes hold of her forehead. He searches through her memories, latching on to one that screams. 

With a gasp she goes limp in her arms and he lowers them to the ground as they relive the memory together. He gathers the yelling of warriors in battle, this woman fighting alongside comrades dressed just like her. There’s the clash of weaponry, yells of the fallen. Whoever they’re fighting, a slim figure in all black, green wisping around her like Loki’s own seidr, she’s powerful and she decimates them all. 

When Loki pulls his magic back, she’s recovered enough to stumble to her feet. She pulls him up by his collar, turns him around, and kicks him in the back of a knee, making him collapse in one smooth movement. She keeps his wrists clasped in one hand and winds a chain around his arms with the other. 

“What the hell was what?”

Her voice is shaking. She does a relatively good job at covering it up. 

“You’re a Valkyrie. What _are_ you doing so far from home?”

She glares at him, kicking him in the shin for good measure. The metal covering the tip of her boot is sure to leave a nasty bruise.

“I ask the questions. Why is the prince here?”

“Mission for the king.”

“You need to leave.”

“Afraid I’ll give away your secret?”

“I’ve made a life for myself here. You will not ruin it now.”

Loki would have raised his hands in a placating gesture if he wasn’t chained up. “Listen, I’m just looking for Bruce Banner. I’ve been asking people around town. You’re the only one to attack me.”

“Because none of them recognized you as the prince,” she hisses. “Your very presence doesn’t threaten their lives!”

“No need for you to feel threatened.”

“Oh? You messing with my head, that’s not a cause for concern?”

“It’s not like I do that to everyone I meet. You’re special.”

She frowns at him. “You disgust me.”

“Well? Do you know where I can find the good doctor?”

Valkyrie eyes him carefully. “Maybe, maybe not. Will you leave town as soon as possible if I tell you?”

“Absolutely.”

Her eyes narrow. “I know him, he’s a good friend of mine. But I don’t trust you, so I’m coming with.”

“Be my guest. Will you unchain me now? I have a friend I need to find, he’s coming with us.”

“You have friends?”

“Very funny. Chains?”

She glares at him one last time for good measure before freeing him. She sweeps an arm to the mouth of the alley. “After you, Lackey.” 

“It’s Loki.” 

As they walk back to the inn, Loki asks, “So, do I just call you Valkyrie or will you tell me your name?”

“Valkyrie is fine.”

“Wonderful. Why are you here?”

“After what happened, I wasn’t interested in staying in Asgard. I was doing fine until you showed up.”

“My apologies. I didn’t mean to upset your façade of a life.” His tone is dry.

“My life is fine.”

“You’re running away.”

“It doesn’t concern you.”

“Fair enough.”

They don't talk much after that. Valkyrie isn't much for conversation. Loki can't say he minds; it's certainly better than people who won't stop talking. 

Steve is already there when they reach the inn. He's laying sprawled on his back across the bed. 

"Tired?" Loki asks. 

"A bit," he replies. "Just a lot of walking." 

Then he turns his head and notices Valkyrie. He sits up. "Oh, hello ma'am."

She snorts. “ _Ma’am?_ Please.”

“She goes by Valkyrie,” Loki says. 

“Nice to meet you,” Steve tells her, ever the polite one. “I’m Steve.”

“ _This_ is your friend?” Valkyrie asks Loki. “And you’re sharing one room, with one bed, at this inn?”

“The status of our accommodations is not important.” 

“We’re just friends.” Steve adds, far too quickly. 

Valkyrie hums, clearly amused. 

“You said you could help,” Loki moves the conversation swiftly forward. “Let’s see Banner, shall we?”

She rolls her eyes. “Calm down, Lackey. It’s not far from here.”

“Oh, do you know where he is?” Steve asks. 

“He’s a friend of mine.”

“Are we by chance going to the inn outside town?”

“How did you know that?”

“I met someone. Uh, Sam Wilson?”

Valkyrie nods. “Nice guy. A bit too eager to talk through your problems for my taste, but Bruce likes him well enough.”

“Yeah, I liked him too,” Steve smiles. 

Loki’s eyes narrow ever so slightly as he ushers them out the door. “Who exactly is this Sam?”

“Local healer of sorts, he just works more with trauma and mental issues, that sort of thing,” Valkyrie explains. “We get lots of retired soldiers coming to town to see him. He’s gaining a bit of a reputation.” 

“I think what he’s doing is pretty neat. My ma spent some time doing something similar when the war ended. She was a nurse.”

Loki ignores their conversation, letting them walk ahead and pushing all thoughts of this Sam Wilson out of his head. It didn’t matter if Steve liked him, Steve was allowed to have friends. And Sam was just a friend. They only met this morning, for god's sake. This was fine. 

Loki knows he has a tendency to get possessive, jealousy flaring in seconds. He attributes it to being wary of people getting close and then overprotective when he fears losing them. He’s working on it. And he trusts Steve, he really does. He takes a large breath to calm himself down and focuses on what they’re here for. Dr. Banner and information on the Tesseract. Steve is loyal and everything is fine; it’s stupid to worry. 

▷━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◁

The inn is just outside the town border, hidden slightly by a cluster of trees. Secluded, private. Unsurprisingly, it’s relatively empty too. The only guests would be the ones who already knew of the inn’s existence, the usual patrons; there wasn’t a very high chance of discovering this place by accident. It was perfect for a man seeking privacy. 

The sole worker at the inn, a charming woman named Betty, directs them to a room upstairs with no hesitation when she sees Valkyrie. As annoying as it was to get dragged into an alley and attacked when he was walking down the street, Loki is now glad for her presence. 

The man that opens the door is relatively… normal. Messy hair and a tired face, glasses slipping down his nose. He greets Valkyrie and gives them a wary glance, then invites them in. There aren’t many places for them to sit but Loki urges Steve to take the one chair and chooses to stand near him. Valkyrie collapses on the bed like it’s hers and the doctor hovers near the door, as though uncertain of what to do with so many people invading his space. 

“So…” he begins, “can I help you?”

“These people wanted to see you.” Valkyrie says. “So here they are.”

“If it’s a serious medical problem, you should probably see a real healer, I’m not actually qualif—”

Valkyrie interrupts with a sound of disbelief. “Oh, come on. You tell everyone that and help them anyways.” 

“Well,” Loki interjects before their conversation continues. “You’re in luck. It’s not a medical problem.”

“Then what do you need?”

“I know you travel a lot, between the villages and towns in the area, and the rest of the kingdom,” Steve explains. “We were hoping you might have information about something we’re looking for.”

“And what would that be?”

“The tesseract,” Loki answers. “An ancient artifact of magic, belonging to my family.”

Valkyrie turns her head to see Banner’s confusion. “He’s the missing prince.”

Banner’s eyes widen almost comically. He walks to the end of the bed to sit down. “You’re… I’ve got Asgardian royalty in my bedroom?” 

“Our search so far has yielded little. Can you help us?”

Banner rubs a hand over his forehead, dragging it down his face. “I mean… yeah, in my research about gamma radiation, it came up a couple times. Something about the energy it emits? Hold on I’ve got my notes somewhere…” 

He crosses the room to the shelf taking up the entire wall, filled with rows of journals. Banner scans the shelves, picking one up and returning to the bed while rifling through the pages. 

He mutters to himself while he searches. When he finds it he exclaims, “Here we go.”

Banner reads to himself before looking up. “I remember this. S.H.I.E.L.D. found it years ago. They contacted me and asked for my help studying it.”

Loki freezes. “S.H.I.E.L.D.?”

Banner hums. “Yeah, they work for the thing. A combined research-defense group, if I remember right.”

“Did they tell you why they were looking into the Tesseract?” Loki asks. 

“Just that the king wanted to learn about it.”

Loki turns away, pacing the room. “Unbelievable.” 

“Is something wrong, Lackey?” Valkyrie asks. Her tone is a warning. She won’t tolerate him losing his temper here, not in her friend’s safe place. 

“It’s fine,” Loki replies through gritted teeth. “Everything’s fine.”

▷━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◁

Banner accompanies them back into town when Valkyrie aggressively encourages him too, saying he needs the fresh air and some fresh food. Loki and Steve walk together, following Valkyrie and Banner as they shop. Loki watches them idly, mind twisting with what they’ve learned. 

Steve is watching him, concerned. “So what now?”

And that is the question, isn’t it? What next? Loki doesn’t know, his mind is consumed with hatred. He had been duped. He should have known, they let them go so, so easily. Such a stupid thing to take for granted. _Stupid, stupid, stupid._

“To think,” Steve continues, “we were talking to them and the Tesseract could have been just down the hall.”

Loki’s mouth twists downwards and he doesn’t reply. Steve seems to notice then, that his mood is sour. 

“Hey, we’ll get it back.” Steve reassures him. 

But this is something he cannot listen to at the moment, words he does not want to hear.

“Really, _Steven_ ,” his name emerges as a sneer from Loki’s mouth. “How, exactly? With your endless optimism, perhaps? Or your boundless strength?”

Steve frowns at the harsh tone. “Look, I understand you’re frustrated—”

“Frustrated? Frustrated! I’m well past frustrated, believe me.”

“Well, it isn’t my fault! Yelling at me isn’t going to help you!”

They’re gathering attention now, but Loki can’t bring himself to care. “Of course you’d say that. But it’s always your fault, isn’t it? We travel slowly, to accommodate your health. We run from towns because you start fights in bars, ever the noble knight. And now, the Tesseract held from my reach and all you can offer are empty platitudes?”

“I left home to help you. I’m trying and I’m sorry if I don’t know what else to do! It’s not like you have any bright ideas.” Steve’s carefully controlled frustration is bleeding into his voice. Some dark part of Loki is satisfied at pushing the polite gentleman so far he becomes a bit more like Loki himself. 

“I’ve managed to get us this far,” Loki says. “What have you done?”

“Without someone local, you wouldn’t have made it here.”

“Please,” Loki scoffs. “I don’t need you.”

Loki knows his words go too far. He knows, he knows, he knows, but still the vitriol spills from his tongue. It leaves the bitter taste of regret, a stubborn taste he chooses to ignore.

Mother always warned him to be careful with his words. 

Steve’s response is cut short by his wheezing breath. Loki’s rage clears at the sound and is replaced by horror. Overwhelmed by the situation and by the concerned people closing in, Loki runs. 

▷━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◁

It’s a dark skinned man who finds him later, sitting uncomfortably stiff at a table in the tavern. He’s only had enough to make him slightly tipsy. He’s never liked getting drunk; the loss of control makes him uneasy. 

The man sits down across from him, silent for a moment before speaking. “I heard what happened. Steve’s okay, if you’re wondering.”

Loki is genuinely relieved to hear it. The tension in his shoulders eases and he slumps, leaning forward to rest his forehead on the table. 

“I take it you were worried.”

Loki can only nod in answer.

“He’s asking about you.”

Loki looks up at that. Steve truly is unbearably good. It makes Loki grin like an idiot at the stained table. 

“Who are you?”

“Oh, I’m Sam. Sam Wilson.”

Loki nods in recognition. “What happened? After I… left.”

"Bruce took care of him. Said it was an asthma attack? Wasn’t too bad, so they got Steve breathing right pretty quick.”

“Glad to hear it.”

“Wanna talk about what happened?”

Loki draws in a long breath. “Just an argument. A stupid one. It was probably quite taxing on him, after walking all the way to the town border and back.”

Sam nods. “Well, everyone has fights sometimes. And when people care about each other, they’re better at hurting each other.”

Loki just stares at him. 

“Come on. I’ve talked to Steve, it’s kind of obvious. You could at least admit it to yourself.”

And he’s right. The heart wrenching fear of watching Steve struggle to breath, the elation of just being near him, the simple things like sharing warmth in bed and Steve braiding his hair… Loki undeniably liked Steve. Maybe even loved him. 

The thought made him want to panic. Letting people close was dangerous but it was too late to turn back now. Loki groaned and dropped his head to the table once more. Sam smiled sympathetically and reached over to give him a pat on the shoulder. “Hey, at least you fell for a nice guy.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the final chapter will be delayed until tomorrow because I'm caught up with schoolwork and it still has to be formatted. But tomorrow and no later! This is a deadline I will definitely meet. :)


End file.
